We further found that immune regulating genes, e.g. SOCS1-3, ZC3H12A, BCL3 and TNFAIP3 were upregulated during infections with both “fit” and “non-fit” trophozoites, while “non-fit” trophozoites also upregulated the immune-regulatory genes encoding TNFAIP6, MIR221, NFKBID, ZFP36L1, IL10RA and ZBP1 (Fig 4C, S2 Table). Here, ZBP1 is linked to infection.