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Viruses
Special Issues
Antiviral Immune Responses of Bat
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Antiviral Immune Responses of Bat

A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Viral Immunology, Vaccines, and Antivirals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 May 2025 | Viewed by 3079

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gustavo F. Palacios

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Icahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, Department of Microbiol, New York, NY, USA
Interests: virology; genetics; immunity; bat
Dr. Mariano Sánchez Lockhart

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Frederick, MD, USA
Interests: virology; immunity; bat

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the global landscape of emerging pathogens continues to evolve, it is increasingly important to understand the unique mechanisms by which bats mount antiviral immune responses. Bats are known reservoirs for a diverse array of viruses, including those with high-consequence zoonotic potential. However, these flying mammals demonstrate an exceptional ability to coexist with viral pathogens, often without manifesting disease. To explore the molecular, cellular, and physiological aspects of antiviral immunity in bats, we are pleased to introduce a Special Issue that brings together leading researchers in the field. This issue aims to delve deeply into the intricacies of bat immune systems, with a particular focus on how these insights can inform our strategies for managing viral spillover events and emerging infectious diseases in humans.

Dr. Gustavo F. Palacios
Dr. Mariano Sánchez Lockhart
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bats
  • antiviral immunity
  • viral spillover
  • emerging infectious diseases
  • molecular and cellular aspects of bat immune systems

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

31 pages, 5365 KiB  
Article
Increased Susceptibility of Rousettus aegyptiacus Bats to Respiratory SARS-CoV-2 Challenge Despite Its Distinct Tropism for Gut Epithelia in Bats
by Björn-Patrick Mohl, Claudia Blaurock, Angele Breithaupt, Alexander Riek, John R. Speakman, Catherine Hambly, Marcel Bokelmann, Gang Pei, Balal Sadeghi, Anca Dorhoi and Anne Balkema-Buschmann
Viruses 2024, 16(11), 1717; https://doi.org/10.3390/v16111717 - 31 Oct 2024
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Abstract
Increasing evidence suggests bats are the ancestral hosts of the majority of coronaviruses. In general, coronaviruses primarily target the gastrointestinal system, while some strains, especially Betacoronaviruses with the most relevant representatives SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, also cause severe respiratory disease in humans and [...] Read more.
Increasing evidence suggests bats are the ancestral hosts of the majority of coronaviruses. In general, coronaviruses primarily target the gastrointestinal system, while some strains, especially Betacoronaviruses with the most relevant representatives SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, also cause severe respiratory disease in humans and other mammals. We previously reported the susceptibility of Rousettus aegyptiacus (Egyptian fruit bats) to intranasal SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, we compared their permissiveness to an oral infection versus respiratory challenge (intranasal or orotracheal) by assessing virus shedding, host immune responses, tissue-specific pathology, and physiological parameters. While respiratory challenge with a moderate infection dose of 1 × 104 TCID50 caused a systemic infection with oral and nasal shedding of replication-competent virus, the oral challenge only induced nasal shedding of low levels of viral RNA. Even after a challenge with a higher infection dose of 1 × 106 TCID50, no replication-competent virus was detectable in any of the samples of the orally challenged bats. We postulate that SARS-CoV-2 is inactivated by HCl and digested by pepsin in the stomach of R. aegyptiacus, thereby decreasing the efficiency of an oral infection. Therefore, fecal shedding of RNA seems to depend on systemic dissemination upon respiratory infection. These findings may influence our general understanding of the pathophysiology of coronavirus infections in bats. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antiviral Immune Responses of Bat)
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16 pages, 3808 KiB  
Article
Endogenous Bornavirus-like Elements in Bats: Evolutionary Insights from the Conserved Riboviral L-Gene in Microbats and Its Antisense Transcription in Myotis daubentonii
by Muriel Ritsch, Tom Eulenfeld, Kevin Lamkiewicz, Andreas Schoen, Friedemann Weber, Martin Hölzer and Manja Marz
Viruses 2024, 16(8), 1210; https://doi.org/10.3390/v16081210 - 27 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1137
Abstract
Bats are ecologically diverse vertebrates characterized by their ability to host a wide range of viruses without apparent illness and the presence of numerous endogenous viral elements (EVEs). EVEs are well preserved, expressed, and may affect host biology and immunity, but their role [...] Read more.
Bats are ecologically diverse vertebrates characterized by their ability to host a wide range of viruses without apparent illness and the presence of numerous endogenous viral elements (EVEs). EVEs are well preserved, expressed, and may affect host biology and immunity, but their role in bat immune system evolution remains unclear. Among EVEs, endogenous bornavirus-like elements (EBLs) are bornavirus sequences integrated into animal genomes. Here, we identified a novel EBL in the microbat Myotis daubentonii, EBLL-Cultervirus.10-MyoDau (short name is CV.10-MyoDau) that shows protein-level conservation with the L-protein of a Cultervirus (Wuhan sharpbelly bornavirus). Surprisingly, we discovered a transcript on the antisense strand comprising three exons, which we named AMCR-MyoDau. The active transcription in Myotis daubentonii tissues of AMCR-MyoDau, confirmed by RNA-Seq analysis and RT-PCR, highlights its potential role during viral infections. Using comparative genomics comprising 63 bat genomes, we demonstrate nucleotide-level conservation of CV.10-MyoDau and AMCR-MyoDau across various bat species and its detection in 22 Yangochiropera and 12 Yinpterochiroptera species. To the best of our knowledge, this marks the first occurrence of a conserved EVE shared among diverse bat species, which is accompanied by a conserved antisense transcript. This highlights the need for future research to explore the role of EVEs in shaping the evolution of bat immunity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antiviral Immune Responses of Bat)
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