Feb 26, 2018 02:28 PM
Quote: Research uncovers how bats serve as reservoirs for fatal diseases without succumbing to them. Tanya Loos reports.
Quote:Recent research from China has provided another clue into the mechanics of the bat family’s anti-viral superpowers, which may be related to their capacity for sustained flight.
When we contract a virus, special proteins known as interferons are produced in the body. The interferon response helps fight the virus, but if that response is too strong auto-immune diseases result.
In 2016, the first bat genome was sequenced, that of an Australian black flying fox (Pteropus alecto). This study found that the flying fox has a low number of interferons, in fact the lowest of any other mammal group. The study also found that the expression of these proteins was the same in the absence of any disease, that is, they stayed switched on. This unusual pattern had not been described in any other species.
And it seems the immune systems of the entire bat family are primed for being natural hosts to viruses – with further work revealing another surprising difference between them and other mammals.
Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China examined 30 bats from a number of genera, and found that in all of them an antiviral immune pathway called the STING-interferon pathway is dampened. The results are published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.
“We believe there is a balance between bats and the pathogens they carry,” says senior author Peng Zhou
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https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/switc...-of-flying