Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.3
3.8
Journals
Viruses
Special Issues
Antiviral Immune Responses of Bat
share announcement

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 3869

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

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

20 pages, 14004 KiB  
Article
Ephrin B1 and B2 Mediate Cedar Virus Entry into Egyptian Fruit Bat Cells
by Lea Lenhard, Martin Müller, Sandra Diederich, Lisa Loerzer, Virginia Friedrichs, Bernd Köllner, Stefan Finke, Anca Dorhoi and Gang Pei
Viruses 2025, 17(4), 573; https://doi.org/10.3390/v17040573 - 16 Apr 2025
Viewed by 281
Abstract
Cedar virus (CedV), closely related to the Hendra and Nipah viruses, is a novel Henipavirus that was originally isolated from flying foxes in Australia in 2012. Although its glycoprotein G exhibits relatively low sequence similarity with its counterparts of the Hendra and Nipah [...] Read more.
Cedar virus (CedV), closely related to the Hendra and Nipah viruses, is a novel Henipavirus that was originally isolated from flying foxes in Australia in 2012. Although its glycoprotein G exhibits relatively low sequence similarity with its counterparts of the Hendra and Nipah viruses, CedV also uses ephrin receptors, i.e., ephrins B1, B2, A2 and A5, to enters human cells. Nevertheless, the entry mechanism of CedV into bat cells remains unexplored. Considering that Rousettus aegyptiacus (Egyptian Rousette bat, ERB) is postulated to be a reservoir host for henipaviruses, we aim to reveal the receptors utilized by CedV to enable its entry into ERB cells. To this end, we cloned the class A and B ephrins of ERB and generated CHO-K1 cells stably expressing individual ephrins. We also developed a lentivirus-based pseudovirus system containing the firefly luciferase reporter. Assessment of the luciferase activity in cells expressing single ephrins demonstrated that the ERB ephrin B1 and B2 mediated CedV pseudovirus entry. Further, we generated a recombinant CedV expressing the fluorescent protein TurboFP635 (rCedV-nTurbo635). By performing high-content microscopy and flow cytometry, we unveiled that, in addition to ephrin B1 and B2, ephrin A5 was also able to mediate rCedV-nTurbo635 entry, although to a much lesser extent. In contrast to human ephrin A2, ERB ephrin A2 failed to mediate rCedV-nTurbo635 entry. Finally, we generated ERB epithelial cells with ephrin B1 and/or ephrin B2 knockdown (KD). The entry of rCedV-nTurbo635 into ERB epithelial cells was drastically impaired by ephrin B1/B2 KD, validating the importance of ephrin B1 and B2 in its entry. Altogether, we conclude that CedV primarily employs ERB ephrin B1, B2 and, possibly, A5 for its entry into ERB cells. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antiviral Immune Responses of Bat)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

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
Viewed by 1731
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

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 1298
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)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop