Chinese studies have found why bats carry the virus but don't get sick
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Last Update: 2021-03-08
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Source: Internet
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Author: User
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can carry viruses such as Ebola and SARS coronavirus, but they don't get sick from it. A new study by Chinese scientists has found that an antiviral immune channel is suppressed in bats.
an antiviral immune channel called interferon gene stimulant protein-interferon is suppressed in bats, allowing them to fight disease without triggering a strong immune response, according to a study published In the American Academic Journal
on Monday.
"Bats have acquired the ability to inhibit certain channels during evolution in order to balance the pathogens they carry," Zhou Peng of the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, author of the paper, told Xinhua.
researchers say the weakened channel has not lost its function, suggesting that bats can fine-tune levels of virus defenses and effectively but not unduely immune to them.
While the immune response helps the body fight off pathogens such as viruses, an over-immune response to a virus can lead to serious diseases in humans and other mammals, such as activated "interferon gene stimulation protein" channels in the human body associated with severe autoimmune diseases.
Long-term, bats carry the virus without getting sick, which is expected to allow humans to learn how to fight the virus, although it is not clear whether this study can be used directly in humans," Zhou Peng said. (Source: Xinhua News Agency: Zhou Zhou)
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