Fig. 1.

Inflammatory cytokines upregulated in the “cytokine storm” of SARS-CoV-2 induced in lung cells are also produced and secreted by adipose tissue, adipocytes, and resident immune cells of obese patients, suggesting a potential “addictive” pro-inflammatory effect. Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interferon gamma (INF-γ), INF-γ-induced protein 10 (IP-10 or CXCL10), monocyte-chemotactic protein 3 (CCL7 or MCP-3), monocyte-chemotactic protein 1 (CCL2 or MCP-1), and interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) were associated with an increased viral load, loss of lung function, lung injury, and a fatal outcome. This figure was generated with images from Servier Medical Art (www.servier.com), licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported license (http://creativecommons.org/license/by/3.0/).