Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service, Sandringham, Johannesburg 2131, South Africa.
Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
Viruses. 2018 Feb 10;10(2):73. doi: 10.3390/v10020073.
Egyptian rousette bats (ERBs) are reservoir hosts for the Marburg virus (MARV). The immune dynamics and responses to MARV infection in ERBs are poorly understood, and limited information exists on the role of antibodies in protection of ERBs against MARV infection. Here, we determine the duration of maternal immunity to MARV in juvenile ERBs, and evaluate the duration of the antibody response to MARV in bats naturally or experimentally infected with the virus. We further explore whether antibodies in previously naturally exposed bats is fully protective against experimental reinfection with MARV. Maternal immunity was lost in juvenile ERBs by 5 months of age. Antibodies to MARV remained detectable in 67% of experimentally infected bats approximately 4 months post inoculation (p.i.), while antibodies to MARV remained present in 84% of naturally exposed bats at least 11 months after capture. Reinfection of seropositive ERBs with MARV produced an anamnestic response from day 5 p.i. Although PCR-defined viremia was present in 73.3% of reinfected ERBs, replicating virus was recovered from the serum of only one bat on day 3 p.i. The negative PCR results in the salivary glands, intestines, bladders and reproductive tracts of reinfected bats, and the apparent absence of MARV in the majority of swabs collected from these bats suggest that reinfection may only play a minor role in the transmission and maintenance of MARV amongst ERBs in nature.
埃及果蝠（ERBs）是马尔堡病毒（MARV）的天然宿主。目前对于 ERB 对 MARV 感染的免疫动力学和反应知之甚少，并且关于抗体在保护 ERB 免受 MARV 感染方面的作用的信息有限。在这里，我们确定了幼年 ERB 对 MARV 的母体免疫力的持续时间，并评估了自然或实验感染 MARV 的蝙蝠对 MARV 的抗体反应的持续时间。我们进一步探讨了先前自然暴露的蝙蝠中的抗体是否完全可以预防 MARV 的实验再感染。幼年 ERB 中的母源免疫力在 5 个月大时消失。在接种后约 4 个月时，67％的实验感染蝙蝠仍可检测到针对 MARV 的抗体，而在至少 11 个月后捕获时，84％的自然暴露蝙蝠仍存在针对 MARV 的抗体。MARV 血清阳性 ERB 的再感染在接种后第 5 天产生了回忆反应。尽管 73.3％的再感染 ERB 中存在 PCR 定义的病毒血症，但仅在接种后第 3 天从一只蝙蝠的血清中回收了复制病毒。再感染蝙蝠的唾液腺，肠，膀胱和生殖道中的 PCR 结果为阴性，并且从这些蝙蝠采集的大多数拭子中明显没有 MARV，这表明再感染可能仅在 MARV 在自然状态下 ERB 中的传播和维持中起次要作用。
