Why doesn't Ebola cause disease in bats, as it does in people?
Date:
August 18, 2020
Source:
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Summary:
A new study uncovered new information on why the Ebola virus can
live within bats without causing them harm, while the same virus
wreaks deadly havoc to people.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study by researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch
at Galveston uncovered new information on why the Ebola virus can live
within bats without causing them harm, while the same virus wreaks deadly
havoc to people.
This study is now available in Cell Reports.
==========================================================================
The Ebola virus causes a devastating, often fatal, infectious disease in people. Within the past decade, Ebola has caused two large and difficult
to control outbreaks, one of which recently ended in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
When a virus brings serious disease to people, it means that humans are
not good hosts for the virus. Viruses depend on a living host for their survival and have natural reservoirs -- a hosting animal species in which
a virus naturally lives and reproduces without causing disease. Bats
are likely a natural reservoir for the Ebola virus, but little is known
about how the virus evolves in bats.
Like most other RNA viruses, Ebola's molecules are structured in a way
that makes them more prone to genomic errors and mutations than other
types of viruses. Because of this, Ebola and similar viruses have a
remarkable ability to adapt to and replicate in new environments.
In the study, the research team, led by Alex Bukreyev, a UTMB virologist
in the departments of pathology and microbiology and immunology,
working with the team of Raul Andino, University of California, San
Francisco, investigated how the Ebola virus adapts to both bat and human
cells. They assessed changes in mutation rates and the structure of Ebola
virus populations repeatedly in both bat and human cell lines using an ultra-deep genetic sequencing.
"We identified a number of meaningful differences in how the Ebola virus evolves when placed in a human cell line relative to a bat cell line,"
Bukreyev said. "For instance, the RNA editing enzyme called ADAR within
bat cells play a greater role in the replication and evolution of the
Ebola virus than do such enzymes in human cells. We found that the
envelope protein of Ebola virus undergoes a drastic increase in certain mutations within bat cells, but this was not found in human cells. This
study identifies a novel mechanism by which Ebola virus is likely to
evolve in bats." The study suggests that the Ebola virus and bats can
live together harmoniously because of the bat cell's ability to induce
changes in the virus that make it less capable of harm. Bukreyev said
that the study's findings validate the ultra-deep genetic sequencing used
in this study as a predictive tool that can identify viral mutations
associated with more adaptive evolution. This technology can be very
useful in studying, and perhaps shaping, the evolution of emerging
viruses, like SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Texas_Medical_Branch_at_Galveston. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Zachary J. Whitfield, Abhishek N. Prasad, Adam J. Ronk, Ivan
V. Kuzmin,
Philipp A. Ilinykh, Raul Andino, Alexander
Bukreyev. Species-Specific Evolution of Ebola Virus during
Replication in Human and Bat Cells. Cell Reports, 2020; 32 (7):
108028 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108028 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200818142147.htm
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