MERFISH data from the murine hypothalamus in health and under induced sickness states

In natural environments, animals encounter diverse pathogens that engage
specific peripheral host defense programs and elicit sickness behavior – a
set of stereotyped physiological and behavioral changes thought to promote
host fitness. So far, most studies have relied on one or few mouse models
of infection, limiting insights into pathogen-specific neuroimmune
interactions that generate sickness. We hypothesized that different
pathogens may elicit distinct sickness states and engage various brain
circuits. Using different models of infection and inflammation
representing bacterial, viral, allergic, parasitic and colitis conditions,
we assessed sickness across scales: organismal – behavior and physiology;
cellular – brain-wide neural activity; and molecular – single-cell in situ
transcriptomics in the hypothalamus, associated with social and
homeostatic functions affected during sickness. Remarkably, immune
challenges each elicited unique repertoires of changes across all scales.
Our findings reveal specific pathogen-specific sickness states encoded by
the brain across scales, thereby broadening our understanding of how
infections make us sick. This repository contains all MERFISH-related data
associated with these studies.