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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Longitudinal In Vivo Imaging of the Cerebrovasculature: Relevance to CNS Diseases
Published on: December 6, 2016
Acute viral encephalitis impacts dense-core amyloid plaque pathology and dysregulates myeloid responses to amyloid
Dominic Ibarra Javonillo1, Susana Furman1, Lucas Le1
1Department of Neurobiology & Behavior, University of California, Irvine, California, USA.
Introduction:
Recent epidemiological datasets have associated viral encephalitis exposure (i.e., viral-induced neuroinflammation) with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia, highlighting the need to uncover how it may impact AD neuropathology.
Methods:
Aged 5xFAD and wild-type (WT) mice were infected with the John Howard Mueller strain of murine hepatitis virus (JHMV), a neurotropic strain of murine coronavirus to comprehensively determine how coronavirus-induced encephalitis may induce molecular and cellular changes that impact beta-amyloid (Aβ) neuropathology.
Results:
JHMV-induced encephalitis at 12 days post-infection resulted in minimal changes to overall Aβ protein, despite increased CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell infiltration and Lgals3/MAC2-expressing macrophages surrounding more compact Aβ plaques in the brain. Spatial transcriptomic imaging and pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) within myeloid cells demonstrate down-regulated disease-associated (DAM) pathways involving Aβ clearance, response to lipids, and macrophage activation within infected 5xFAD brains.
Conclusions:
JHMV encephalitis induces dysregulated gene expression and myeloid cell responses to Aβ plaque burden in 5xFAD mouse brains.
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