CXCL8 and infection: To confirm TAK1 involvement, we infected AGS cells with our CagA phosphorylation-functional and -deficient mutants in the presence of 5Z-7-Oxozeaenol which is reported to be a specific inhibitor of TAK1 in a number of studies [50]–[54] and determined the levels of secreted IL-8 in the culture supernatants (Figure 5A and Figure 5B), at 4h post infection, due to the labile nature of the inhibitor.