The bat-virus relationship examined Bats Zoonosis Coronavirus Disease COVID Virus Chiroptera iScience_CP usask UWaterloo UofT
By Dr. Liji Thomas, MDJul 28 2022Reviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc. While bats are found in abundance in most parts of the world, particularly in tropical and temperate climates, they rarely cause problems to human beings. However, over the past several years, bats have emerged as potential vectors of several viruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 , which caused the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Bats host many viruses, some of which have caused major zoonotic outbreaks of severe and sometimes fatal diseases. This may occur through direct transmission or secondary spread involving an intermediate animal host. Bats also migrate seasonally, sometimes over hundreds of miles. This causes bats that are native to one place to become infected with new viruses from their migration home, especially because different bat species share the same roost. Moreover, migration could induce impaired immunity and thus allow chronic viral infections to reactivate.
Longevity is significant for bats, as their lifespan can range from 20-40 years, depending on the species. While this is due to multiple factors, including their ability to take to the air to escape predators and their cooperative social behavior, along with some biological characteristics, longevity is also determined by genes which, in some cases, also favor virus tolerance.
The immune system in Pterocarpus alectus bats appears to be adapted to infection with many viruses without developing lethal or severe disease. Zoonotic viruses borne by bats induce immune dysregulation in humans, with a hyper-reactive inflammatory process that causes severe disease. However, in bats, several mechanisms prevent this, including inhibition of the pro-inflammatory NLRP3 domain and loss of PYHIN genes, which results in reduced transcription and activation of inflammasomes.
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