TNF and Mental deterioration: Holmes et al. (2011) found an increase in the serum levels of proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α in mild and moderate AD patients, which was associated with a two-fold increase in the rate of cognitive decline over a 6-month period. However, in a study by Julian et al. (2018), no correlation between the plasma value of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α at diagnosis and cognitive decline during the 2 years of follow-up was found.