Bats Carry Deadly Viruses But Don’t Get Sick. How?
Original article from Futurity by Barbara Moran April 26, 2018
The newly-sequenced genome of an Egyptian fruit bat from a cave in Uganda offers clues as to how bats harbor and transmit deadly viruses—but don’t get sick themselves.
Researchers were investigating a 2008 case of a 44-year-old woman from Colorado who returned home from a 2-week safari in Uganda and developed a severe headache, chills, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Then came a rash, abdominal pain, fatigue, and confusion.
Doctors eventually diagnosed her illness as Marburg disease, a virus from the same family as Ebola virus, and one of the most deadly pathogens to infect humans. The tourist had likely caught it during a visit to Python Cave, by touching rocks covered with bat guano. She survived, but a Dutch tourist who had visited the same cave and contracted the virus did not.
The genome of Rousettus aegyptiacus, the Egyptian fruit bat, includes larger-than-expected families of genes related to the mammalian immune system. Specifically, researchers found large families of interferon and natural killer genes that differed dramatically from their counterparts in other mammals.
As reported in Cell, the findings may eventually lead to a deeper understanding of virus transmission, and better treatments for humans who become infected.