IL18 and infection: Furthermore, natural infection in humans and experimental WT MeV infection of rhesus macaques are associated with increases in plasma levels of IL-6, CXCL8, TNFα, IL-1β, and IL-18 proteins suggesting that the primary innate responses consist of NF-κB signaling and inflammasome activation without induction of type I IFN [11,12,13,14,15].