Interestingly, nine microglial genes that were differentially regulated during the first two weeks of LACV infection (CD68, LGALS3BP, MPEG1, B2M, F11R, ITGAX, CD9, CTSZ, TREM2; Fig 7F) overlapped with the genes expressed by a unique beneficial phagocytic microglia (disease associated microglia [DAM] [36]) which has been reported to restrict the development of neurodegenerative diseases [37]. Here, MPEG1 is linked to neurodegenerative disease.