Researchers Show How Bats Carry MERS Coronavirus

Research teams at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) have shown how bats can carry the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus without disease-a study that can shed light on the method Coronavirus Jump on humans and other animals.

Coronaviruses such as MERS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and more recently the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID19 are believed to be derived from bats. Although these viruses can cause serious and often fatal illnesses in people, bats appear to be harmless for reasons not previously well understood.

Bats do not remove the virus, but they do not get sick. I wanted to understand why the MERS virus does not block the bat’s immune response like humans do. ”

Vikram Misra, USask Microbiologist, University of Saskatchewan

In the study just published Science reportFor the first time, the team has demonstrated for the first time that insect-eating brown bat cells can be persistently infected with MERS coronavirus for several months, with important adaptations from both the bat and the virus.

“ Instead of killing bat cells as the virus does in human cells, instead of killing bat cells as the virus does in human cells, the company’s unique “super” immune system maintains a long-term relationship with the host. I will enter. ” “SARS-CoV-2 is believed to work the same way.”

The team’s work suggests that stress on bats (wet markets, other illnesses, and possibly habitat loss) could cause the coronavirus to spill to other species, Misla said. I am doing it.

“When a bat stresses the immune system, it breaks the balance between the immune system and the virus, allowing the virus to multiply,” he said.

The study is one of the largest containment level 3 laboratories in the world by the Western Veterinary University in Ushuasque and the team of researchers at VIDO-InterVac, Usvac’s Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Organization-International Vaccine Center (VIDO-InterVac). It was held in. .

“We see that the MERS coronavirus can adapt very quickly to a particular niche. We don’t fully understand what’s going on, but this does make coronavirus jump from species to species very easy. It shows what we can do, “said VIDO-InterVac scientists. Daryl Farzalano, who led the bat study, is leading the VIDO-InterVac effort to develop the first treatment for MERS-CoV and to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.

So far, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected more than 3.5 million people worldwide, killing 7% of those infected. In contrast, the MERS virus infected approximately 2,500 people in 2012, but one in three. There are no vaccines for either SARS-CoV-2 or MERS. Camels are known intermediate hosts for MERS-CoV, but bats are suspected to be ancestral hosts.

Although coronaviruses adapt rapidly to infected species, Misra said, little is known about the molecular interactions between these viruses and their natural bat hosts. A 2017 USask-led study showed that bat coronavirus can persist in the bat’s natural host for at least 4 months of hibernation.

Bat cells adapt when exposed to the MERS virus-other species, including humans, by maintaining a natural antiviral response rather than producing the proteins that cause the inflammation that is characteristic of getting sick. To stop functioning. At the same time, the MERS virus also adapts to bat host cells by mutating one particular gene very rapidly, he said.

With these adaptations, the virus remains in the bat for a long time, but is harmless until something like a disease or other stressor disrupts this delicate equilibrium.

Next, the team will focus on understanding how bat-borne MERS viruses adapt to infection and replication in camels (a group of artiodactyla including camels) and human cells.

“This information may be important in predicting the next bat virus that causes a pandemic,” Mithra said.