US researchers have gained insights into how bats resist getting ill from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.
Bats can be infected with many types of virus (the virus enters their cells), such as Ebola and Marburg, which can cause severe illness in humans, but often avoid becoming ill themselves.
To understand why, research led by the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, in Massachusetts, studied both bat and human cells that were exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
They saw that in infected bat cells (pictured), there was an absence of structures, called double-membrane vesicles, usually created by the virus to allow it to replicate more effectively in cells – these vesicles however were present in infected human cells.
In addition, the study found that while both bat and human cells had genes that control the release of cytokines (these are proteins that can stimulate inflammation as part of the body’s immune response), only the bat cells had these genes already turned on, before a viral infection had even occurred.
Many of these ‘antiviral’ genes in bats have equivalent versions in humans, which provides a route to further investigation, to identify the specific genes involved in this protective mechanism.
First author Punam Bisht said: “Filling in these gaps in our knowledge will help us develop better vaccines and antiviral strategies.”