Understanding the Bat as a Host of Zoonotic Viruses: Biosurveillance of Bat Populations in Southeast Asia and Examination of the Autophagy Pathway as an Antiviral Mechanism in Bats
Abstract
Zoonotic infectious diseases account for the majority of all recently emerged infectious diseases, including Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, and SARS-coronavirus. Bats, Order Chiroptera, are the natural host of these viruses. Outbreaks of Ebola virus disease have historically been confined to continental Africa. However, Reston virus, an Ebolavirus sp., has origins in the Philippines where it has been isolated from monkey, domestic pig, and bat populations, which suggests that the geographic distribution of ebolaviruses is more extensive than previously thought. In light of the recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa, improved biosurveillance of bat populations is critical for understanding the geographic distribution and potential for spillover events of ebolaviruses and other pathogenic zoonotic viruses. To investigate the geographic distribution of the ebolaviruses, marburgviruses, and henipaviruses, we developed a Luminex-based multiplex binding assay that can be used to detect antibodies specific to the soluble envelope glycoproteins of these viruses. We used this multiplex binding assay to screen bat sera from three Pteropodidae bat species that have vast geographic ranges within Asia for evidence of past exposure to ebolaviruses, marburgviruses, and henipaviruses. We discovered past exposure to viruses that were most antigenically similar to African ebolaviruses in all three Southeast Asian bat species. This discovery corroborates evidence for the geographic distribution of ebolaviruses within the Asian continent and extends this distribution into Southeast Asia. Unlike most terrestrial mammals, infection of bats species with Ebola virus and Nipah virus does not result in the development of symptomatic disease. How zoonotic viruses persist within bats at the cellular level is incompletely understood.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 13, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1127804
Entities
People
- Eric D. Laing
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences