FIGURE 8.

Dexamethasone (100 nM), but not garcinoic acid (1.25, 2.5, and 5 μM) significantly prevented reduced viability of A549 lung epithelial cells co‐cultured with SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein S1‐stimulated PBMCs (a), accompanied by reduction in TNFα and IL‐6 levels in the PBMC layer of the co‐culture (b and c). Values are mean ± SEM for at least 3 independent experiments (ns: not significant; ^### p < .001 unstimulated control versus SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein S1 stimulation. **p < .01; ***p < .001, treatments versus SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein S1 stimulation; one‐way ANOVA with post‐hoc Dunnett's multiple comparison test