Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Michael DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
Viruses. 2019 Jan 9;11(1):41. doi: 10.3390/v11010041.
Bats are speculated to be reservoirs of several emerging viruses including coronaviruses (CoVs) that cause serious disease in humans and agricultural animals. These include CoVs that cause severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) and severe acute diarrhea syndrome (SADS). Bats that are naturally infected or experimentally infected do not demonstrate clinical signs of disease. These observations have allowed researchers to speculate that bats are the likely reservoirs or ancestral hosts for several CoVs. In this review, we follow the CoV outbreaks that are speculated to have originated in bats. We review studies that have allowed researchers to identify unique adaptation in bats that may allow them to harbor CoVs without severe disease. We speculate about future studies that are critical to identify how bats can harbor multiple strains of CoVs and factors that enable these viruses to "jump" from bats to other mammals. We hope that this review will enable readers to identify gaps in knowledge that currently exist and initiate a dialogue amongst bat researchers to share resources to overcome present limitations.
蝙蝠被推测是几种新兴病毒的宿主，包括引起人类和农业动物严重疾病的冠状病毒（CoV）。这些 CoV 包括引起严重急性呼吸综合征（SARS）、中东呼吸综合征（MERS）、猪流行性腹泻（PED）和严重急性腹泻综合征（SADS）的病毒。自然感染或实验感染的蝙蝠没有表现出疾病的临床症状。这些观察结果使研究人员推测蝙蝠可能是几种 CoV 的可能宿主或原始宿主。在这篇综述中，我们遵循了据推测起源于蝙蝠的 CoV 爆发。我们回顾了使研究人员能够识别蝙蝠中独特适应的研究，这可能使它们能够在没有严重疾病的情况下携带 CoV。我们推测未来的研究对于确定蝙蝠如何能够携带多种 CoV 株以及使这些病毒能够从蝙蝠“跳跃”到其他哺乳动物的因素至关重要。我们希望这篇综述能使读者了解目前存在的知识差距，并在蝙蝠研究人员之间发起对话，分享资源以克服当前的限制。
