Pulmonary Macrophage Transcriptome Sequencing from Mice Immunized against Cryptococcosis

Development of vaccines against opportunistic infections is difficult as patients most at risk of developing disease are deficient in aspects of the adaptive immune system. Here, in vivo priming of macrophages with an IFN-γ producing fungal vaccine strain induces innate memory in macrophages that effectively protects against disease, even in the absence traditional adaptive immune cells. RNA-seq analysis of IFN-γ trained macrophages reveals a rapid up-regulation of the STAT1 pathway following secondary challenge, correlating with pro-inflammatory cytokine production. These data provide mechanistic insight into macrophage innate memory and their ability to facilitate the vaccine-mediated immune response.