Reply to Cheng et al.: COVID-19 induces lower extent of cytokines, but damages vascular endothelium by IL-6 signaling.

We appreciate the constructive comments by Cheng et al. (1), who performed an intensive statistical analysis of cytokine levels in patients with COVID-19. Their work applies the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method and an MR-Egger regression on a large number of patients for a statistical analysis to identify COVID-19 risk factors. Consistent with our previous work (2), the results of these analyses suggest that the plasma from patients with COVID-19 has significantly lower levels of interleukin (IL)-8, IL-10, and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, compared with that from patients with other types of cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Previously, we proposed that the elevation of four proinflammatory cytokines, that is, IL-6, … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: kishimoto{at}ifrec.osaka-u.ac.jp. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1