Notably, negligible amounts of TNF-α mRNA upregulation were observed in both astrocyte cell models following the poly(dA:dT) pre-stimulation, perhaps indicating that targeting a dsDNA activation pathway in astrocytes would be useful in a situation where a higher antiviral response but controlled inflammatory response is necessary to control a viral infection; however, further work would be required to fully understand this process. Here, TNF is linked to viral infectious disease.