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The fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans (Cn) causes 220,000 cryptococcosis cases and 181,000 deaths annually, mostly in immunocompromised people. Alveolar macrophages serve as the first line of defense against Cn, which typically enters the body as inhaled propagules and is critical to the outcome of the infection. The ability of macrophages to eliminate Cn is influenced by their polarization state, a set of transitory phenotypes characterized by the altered expression of> 1000 genes, with macrophages polarized to the proinflammatory M1 state by IFNγ-stimulation exhibiting the highest fungicidal activity. RNA sequencing-based transcriptome profiling was employed to assess if Cn impacts the expression of M1-associated genes in RAW264. 7 macrophages. Intracellular infection partially reverted the gene expression profile to a naïve (M0)-like state. To ascertain the mechanism underlying this gene …