Although the IL-17 levels in the mice were too low to determine whether the increase upon infection was indeed significant, this cytokine, which is produced by Th17 cells in response to IL-23, induces chemokines and IL-6 and acts in concert with TNF-α to induce inflammation (McGeachy et al., 2019) and has been shown to be crucial for maintenance of splenic macrophages in P. berghei-infected mice (Ishida et al., 2013). Here, IL17A is linked to infection.