Fig. 3

Sex difference in BIM and CC profile across COVID-19 subjects. A NSE was significantly (p < 0.05) higher after COVID-19. S100b, tau and MAP2 were higher but differences were not statistically significant B IL10, IL15, IL8 and MIP1a were significantly (p < 0.05) in males compared to females. MIP1b, FGF2, GM-CSF and IL6 indicated a non-significant trend of being elevated in males. C The BIM–EM–CC interactions reveal that males have a much robust interactions compared to females. The results indicate that there was a robust association between the inflammatory-brain injury markers in ‘males’ compared to ‘females’. Males had 75 significant (p < 0.05) associations between the markers compared to females who only had 39 significant associations indicating a higher overall inflammatory-mediated brain injury marker mechanisms in male compared to females. The similarity index (SI) between two matrices is 0.71, a p-value < 0.0001 using the random skewers method