As expected, HIV-1 infection in the vehicle group induced a potent cytokine storm with elevated plasma levels of the inflammasome-related cytokines IL-18 but also IFN-γ, IP-10 and TNFα when compared to day 10 before infection (p<0.05; 0.01; 0.05; 0.001; 0.01; 0.001, respectively; Figure 4 and Figure 4—figure supplement 1). Here, TNF is linked to infection.