Novel mechanisms of bats in regulating inflammatory cell death to tolerate pathogenic viruses.

Bats are ecologically important mammals, but recent studies have also identified them as reservoirs of emerging viruses. These viruses include SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). Intriguingly, bats that are naturally or experimentally infected with these viruses do not develop severe disease. Thus, bats provide us with a unique mammalian model to investigate virus-host interactions.

Virus infection is associated with inflammatory cell death. Necroptosis and pyroptosis are two such cell death pathways that are activated by virus infection, lead to destruction of virus replication niche, and initiate inflammatory immune cell recruitment, and virus clearance. However, dysregulated cell death is associated with severe inflammation and tissue damage, such as during severe COVID-19. Whether these cell death programs are active in pathogenic virus reservoir hosts, such as bats, and how bat cells mitigate respiratory epithelial damage and inflammation remain unclear. Recent studies within the Sannula laboratory (IISc) have identified intriguing variations in bat inflammasome and pyroptosis activation machinery…..

Faculty Supervisor:

Arinjay Banerjee

Student:

Partner:

Indian Institute of Sciences (Bangalore)

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program: