CSIRO Livestock Industries, Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Geelong, Vic., Australia.
Zoonoses Public Health. 2013 Feb;60(1):104-16. doi: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2012.01528.x. Epub 2012 Aug 1.
Despite being the second most species-rich and abundant group of mammals, bats are also among the least studied, with a particular paucity of information in the area of bat immunology. Although bats have a long history of association with rabies, the emergence and re-emergence of a number of viruses from bats that impact human and animal health has resulted in a resurgence of interest in bat immunology. Understanding how bats coexist with viruses in the absence of disease is essential if we are to begin to develop therapeutics to target viruses in humans and susceptible livestock and companion animals. Here, we review the current status of knowledge in the field of bat antiviral immunology including both adaptive and innate mechanisms of immune defence and highlight the need for further investigations in this area. Because data in this field are so limited, our discussion is based on both scientific discoveries and theoretical predictions. It is hoped that by provoking original, speculative or even controversial ideas or theories, this review may stimulate further research in this important field. Efforts to understand the immune systems of bats have been greatly facilitated in recent years by the availability of partial genome sequences from two species of bats, a megabat, Pteropus vampyrus, and a microbat, Myotis lucifugus, allowing the rapid identification of immune genes. Although bats appear to share most features of the immune system with other mammals, several studies have reported qualitative and quantitative differences in the immune responses of bats. These observations warrant further investigation to determine whether such differences are associated with the asymptomatic nature of viral infections in bats.
尽管蝙蝠是物种最丰富、数量最庞大的哺乳动物之一，但它们也是研究最少的哺乳动物之一，特别是在蝙蝠免疫学领域，相关信息极为匮乏。尽管蝙蝠与狂犬病有着悠久的关联史，但一些来自蝙蝠的病毒的出现和再次出现，对人类和动物的健康造成了影响，这导致人们对蝙蝠免疫学的兴趣再次高涨。如果我们要开始开发针对人类、易感牲畜和伴侣动物中病毒的疗法，那么了解蝙蝠在没有疾病的情况下与病毒共存的机制至关重要。在这里，我们回顾了蝙蝠抗病毒免疫学领域的现有知识状况，包括适应性和先天免疫防御机制，并强调了在该领域进一步研究的必要性。由于该领域的数据非常有限，我们的讨论基于科学发现和理论预测。我们希望通过提出原创的、推测性的甚至有争议的想法或理论，来激发该重要领域的进一步研究。近年来，由于两种蝙蝠（一种是大蝙蝠，吸血蝠属的吸血蝠；另一种是小蝙蝠，鼠耳蝠属的鼠耳蝠）的部分基因组序列的可用性，蝙蝠免疫系统的研究得到了极大的促进，这使得免疫基因的快速鉴定成为可能。尽管蝙蝠与其他哺乳动物的免疫系统有许多共同特征，但有几项研究报告了蝙蝠免疫反应的定性和定量差异。这些观察结果值得进一步研究，以确定这些差异是否与蝙蝠中病毒感染的无症状性质有关。
