Cultivate intestinal "organoids" in the laboratory to study why bats coexist with viruses but do not get sick

Researchers are trying to explain why bats can be infected with many viruses, but never get a disease, such as COVID-19, which can help us reduce the chance that infectious diseases threaten humans

This paper on bat organ growth technology was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Bats are the natural source of a large number of human pathogens (or, in epidemiological terms, the "host"-the host in which the pathogen survives without causing disease)

However, bats are wild animals, not domesticated laboratory animals

"If this experimental obstacle can be overcome, the relationship between viruses and bats can be understood, thereby reducing human disease and death

Therefore, researchers have developed a bat organ that can be used for this kind of experiment

They chose the rousette bat, a giant bat or fruit bat, because they are considered the natural host of the filovirus family, including Ebola virus and Marburg virus

Researchers must first find a medium suitable for the growth of bat intestinal cells

In addition, the intestinal organoids of rosette bats grown with these three supplements are long-lived and can maintain active proliferation for up to 10 generations (up to 10 times the reconstitution of organoids from isolated cells before)

In order to confirm that this organoid is mimicking the epithelial tissue (outer tissue) of the bat’s intestines-this is the part of the bat organ that first encounters virus particles and therefore has special scientific value-the researchers used two techniques

A preliminary test using organoids to study the relationship between viruses was also carried out

After successfully producing bat organs for the first time, the researchers now want to repeat their tricks on other flying fox organs, such as the lungs, liver, and kidneys

Article title

Establishment of Intestinal Organoid from Rousettus leschenaultii and the Susceptibility to Bat-Associated Viruses, SARS-CoV-2 and Pteropine Orthoreovirus