TNF and infection: As a pleiotropic cytokine, TNF-α plays a multifaceted role during Mtb infection including attracting immune cells to the site of infection through a cascade reaction (Dorhoi and Kaufmann, 2014) and maintaining granulomas to prevent Mtb from spreading out from the diseased tissue (Flynn et al., 1995; Clay et al., 2008; Dorhoi and Kaufmann, 2014).