Fig 12.

Upregulation of select genes from programmed cell death pathways in eight areas of the brain from mice intranasally (i.n.) infected with VEEV TC-83 at 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 days post-infection (dpi). Mice (n = 4) were i.n. infected with VEEV TC-83 or mock inoculated. At 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 dpi brains were harvested from VEEV TC-83-infected mice and at 1 and 5 dpi brains were harvested from mock-inoculated mice for RNA-Seq. Differential gene expression was calculated using DESeq2 for each day of the VEEV TC-83-infected samples using all of the mock-inoculated mice as controls. The heatmap shows the log₂ (fold change) of genes from three major cell death pathways: pyroptosis (NLRP3, GSDMD, PYCARD, MEFV, and IL1B), necroptosis (RIPK1, RIPK3, CASP8, MLKL, and ZBP1), and apoptosis (CASP3, CASP7, BAK1, BAX, and BCL2A1A). The log₂ fold change increase is noted in the color bar below the figure. All values are statistically significant. Abbreviations: CBX, cerebellum; HIP, hippocampus; MOB, main olfactory bulb; MTX, motor cortex; PIR, piriform cortex; STR, striatum; STX, sensory cortex; THA, thalamus.