Systemic persistent RNA virus infection is short-lived at the single cell level

We report that cells infected with the prototypic arenavirus LCMV are continiously cleared from the infection in a non-cytolytic manner. Non-cytolytic clearance of murine hepatocytes goes along with profound alterations in gene expression. Overall design: We sorted hepatocytes from 14 week-old Cre-reporting mice (STOP_flox_RFP), which had been neonatally infected with Cre-encoding LCMV according to RFP expression (RFP-positive and RFP-negative). Total cellular RNA of each population was subject to bulk RNAseq. RFP-negative hepatocytes from naive STOP_flox_RFP mice and RFP-positive hepatocytes from naive mice expressing RFP under a liver-specific promoter (STOP_flox_RFP x Alb-Cre) served as controls

本研究报道，感染原型沙粒病毒（arenavirus）淋巴细胞性脉络丛脑膜炎病毒（LCMV）的细胞，可通过非溶细胞方式被持续清除感染。小鼠肝细胞的非溶细胞清除过程，伴随基因表达的显著改变。
总体设计：我们从14周龄的Cre报告小鼠（STOP_flox_RFP）中分离肝细胞，这些小鼠在新生期感染了携带Cre编码序列的LCMV，并根据红色荧光蛋白（RFP）的表达情况分为RFP阳性与RFP阴性两组。收集各组细胞的总RNA，进行批量RNA测序（bulk RNAseq）。本研究以未感染的STOP_flox_RFP小鼠的RFP阴性肝细胞，以及在肝脏特异性启动子驱动下表达RFP的未感染小鼠（STOP_flox_RFP x Alb-Cre）的RFP阳性肝细胞作为对照。