"cytokine storm."Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini described the importance of the activation of the inflammatory cascade and in 1993 discovered that PEA functions as a mast cell modulator by reducing mast cell migration and degranulation; thus, PEA reduces the pathological overactivation of these cells and the activity of proinflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-α and IL6), cyclooxygenase and iNOS. It is this excess immune response activity that contributes to the physiologic derangement induced by influenza viruses and sets up the pathogenesis of the "cytokine storm."