Single Cell Gene Expression and ATAC-seq of Mouse Brain Following Multiple Infections with Murine Cytomegalovirus (MCMV)

Evidence supporting the role of pathogen exposure in the development of dementia has been mounting for decades. We used murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) as our model pathogen. We repeated infected mice every 3 months modeling the re-activation/re-infection with MCMV that occurs throughout life. We used Multiome ATAC-seq and RNA-seq to examine changes to the brain of infected animals. Overall design: 2 month old mice were either mock- or MCMV-infected with 5x10^4 plaque forming units. Repeated reactivation or reinfection over the course of the lifetime of the animal was modeled by re-infection with MCMV every 3 months. Mice were sacrificed at 14 months of age and brains were collected for Multiome ATAC-seq RNA-seq