TNF and parasitic infectious disease: On the other hand, it has also been described how the stimulation of animals with EVs of T. cruzi prior to the infection with trypomastigotes induced a decrease in NO production in plasma, as well as the production of TNF-α and IL-6 in spleen cells, but an increase in IL-4 and IL-10 in splenocytes and macrophages that induced high parasitemia and the death of the mice.