Pre-treatment of human RPE cells with the AMP analog, acadesine, downregulated TNF-α induced C3 and its cleaved products C3α and C3β.Cleavage of C3 alpha chain leads to C3a, which is an anaphylatoxin and is implicated in a variety of studies with AMD pathology. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is age-related macular degeneration.