Accelerated viral dynamics in bat cell lines, with implications for zoonotic emergence
Abstract
Bats host virulent zoonotic viruses without experiencing disease. A mechanistic understanding of the impact of bats’ virus hosting capacities, including uniquely constitutive immune pathways, on cellular-scale viral dynamics is needed to elucidate zoonotic emergence. We carried out virus infectivity assays on bat cell lines expressing induced and constitutive immune phenotypes, then developed a theoretical model of our in vitro system, which we fit to empirical data. Best fit models recapitulated expected immune phenotypes for representative cell lines, supporting robust antiviral defenses in bat cells that correlated with higher estimates for within-host viral propagation rates. In general, heightened immune responses limit pathogen-induced cellular morbidity, which can facilitate the establishment of rapidly-propagating persistent infections within-host. Rapidly-transmitting viruses that have evolved with bat immune systems will likely cause enhanced virulence following emergence into secondary hosts with immune systems that diverge from those unique to bats.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Feb 03, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.7554/elife.48401
Entities
People
- Andrea L Graham
- Andrew P Dobson
- Anieke van Leeuwen
- Bryan T. Grenfell
- Cara E Brook
- Christian Drosten
- Kartik Chandran
- Lin-Fa Wang
- Marcel Alexander Müller
- Melinda Ng
- Mike Boots
Organizations
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space
- Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development
- Freie Universität Berlin
- German Research Foundation
- I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
- Miller Institute
- National Institutes of Health
- National Research Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- Princeton University
- Utrecht University