Wan et al. showed that PM2.5 can downregulate autophagy in macrophage RAW264.7 cells by activating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling pathway, increase the concentration of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-α in the supernatant, and accelerate atherosclerosis in mice (Wan et al., 2021). This evidence concerns the gene TNF and atherosclerosis.