EBOLA-CARRYING BATS MAY SHED INSIGHT INTO FIGHTING INFECTION

1. Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including Ebola, rabies and severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), without becoming sick themselves
2. While that makes them a fearsome reservoir of disease, especially in the forests of
Africa where they migrate vast distances
3. It also opens the intriguing possibility that scientists might learn their trick in keeping
killers like Ebola at bay.
4. Clues are starting to emerge following gene analysis, which suggests bats' capacity
to evade Ebola could be linked with their other stand-out ability - the power of flight.
5. Flying requires the bat metabolism to run at a very high rate, causing stress and
potential cell damage, and experts think bats may have developed a mechanism to
limit this damage by having parts of their immune system permanently switched on.
6. The threat to humans from bats comes en route to the dinner plate. Bushmeat - from
bats to antelopes, squirrels, porcupines and monkeys - has long held pride of place
on menus in West and Central Africa. The danger of contracting Ebola lies in
exposure to infected blood in the killing and preparation of animals. The term
bushmeat, also called wildmeat and game meat, refers to meat from nondomesticated mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds hunted for food in tropical
forests. Commercial harvesting and the trade of wildlife is considered a threat to
biodiversity.
7. Scientists studying Ebola since its discovery in 1976 in Democratic Republic of
Congo, then Zaire, have long suspected fruit bats as being the natural hosts, though
the link to humans is sometimes indirect as fruit dropped by infected bats can easily
be picked up by other species, spreading the virus to animals.
8. This nexus of infection in wildlife leads to sporadic Ebola outbreaks following human
contact with blood or other infected animal fluids.
9. This no doubt happened in the current outbreak, although the scale of the crisis now
gripping Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which has killed around 5,000 people,
reflects subsequent public health failures.
10. Bats' role in spreading Ebola is probably a function both of their huge numbers,
where they rank second only to rodents among mammals in the world, as well as
their unusual immune system,
11. But if we can understand how bats are dealing with these viruses and if we can
redirect the immune system of other species to react in the same way, then that
could be a potential therapeutic approach."

12. One reason why Ebola is so deadly to people is that the virus attacks the immune
system and when the system finally comes back it goes into over-drive, causing extra
damage.
13. Ebola works in part by blocking interferon, an anti-virus molecule, which Dr. Baker
has found to be "up-regulated", meaning it is found in higher levels, in bats.
Interferon: A protein released by animal cells, usually in response to the entry of a
virus, that has the property of inhibiting virus replication.