HMOX1 and cerebral malaria: On the contrary, the treatment with simvastatin upregulated INF-γ and TNF-α and did not have a protective activity against cerebral malaria. The combination administration of lovastatin and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induced both HO-1 and NRF2, while preventing INF-γ and TNF-α. These findings, thus, show that VEGF-lovastatin treatment can prevent the inflammatory response in the liver, spleen and brain [25].