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. 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