Clostridioides difficile colitis promotes neuroinflammatory responses in the prefrontal cortex: a preclinical study in mice
We aimed to identify neuroinflammatory responses in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in a mouse model of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) at day 7 post-infection using bulk RNA sequencing. Overall, gene expression analysis identified 124 differentially expressed genes, including 70 upregulated genes, such as Lcn2, Plin4, Fkbp5, Slc38a5, Lrg1, Ucp2, Slc2a1, Spint1, and Trpv4, and 54 downregulated genes, such as Pprc1, Zfp169, Bnip5, Chrm4, Grm3, Hmgcr, Zfp804b, Gpm6b, and Ncan.KEGG gene set enrichment analysis showed upregulation of genes associated with neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. In contrast, genes related to axon guidance, neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, and the T cell receptor signaling pathway were downregulated in infected mice.Enrichment of genes associated with neurodegenerative disorders was accompanied by upregulation of genes involved in the oxidative phosphorylation pathway, which showed significant overlap with neurodegenerative disorder gene sets.Overall, this bulk RNA sequencing dataset provides a valuable resource for identifying potential targets in the prefrontal cortex that may be modulated during CDI to investigate neuroinflammatory responses.