Genome-Wide Transcriptomics Uncovers a Lung-to-Aorta Inflammatory Program Driving Influenza-Induced Atherosclerosis Exacerbation

Influenza A/PR/8/34 infection in high-fat diet-fed Apoe-/- mice drives 6,828 differentially expressed genes across lung and aorta at day 15, revealing a lung-to-aorta inflammatory axis.

• Why it matters: Influenza increases cardiovascular risk in pre-existing atherosclerosis, but the genome-wide transcriptional programs linking lung infection to vascular exacerbation were undefined.
• What they did: Bulk RNA sequencing compared influenza- versus PBS-treated Apoe-/- mice at day 15 post-infection, identifying 6,828 differentially expressed genes (5,694 lung; 1,134 aorta; adjusted p < 0.05).
• The result: Lung CXCR3-driven chemokine and Th1/Th17/exhaustion T-cell programs align with aortic macrophage/DAMP activation and ectopic lung-identity signatures, implicating systemic circadian and Hippo/YAP suppression and supporting candidate targeting of CCR2/CXCR3, NLRP3, and YAP.