Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Panama.
Front Immunol. 2023 Aug 17;14:1232556. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1232556. eCollection 2023.
Animals often mount complex immune responses to infections. Aside from cellular and molecular defense mechanisms, animals can alter their behavior in response to infection by avoiding, resisting, or tolerating negative effects of pathogens. These behaviors are often connected to cellular and molecular immune responses. For instance, sickness behaviors are a set of behavioral changes triggered by the host inflammatory response (e.g., cytokines) and could aid in resisting or tolerating infection, as well as affect transmission dynamics if sick animals socially withdraw or are being avoided by others. To fully understand the group and population level transmission dynamics and consequences of pathogen infections in bats, it is not only important to consider cellular and molecular defense mechanisms, but also behavioral mechanisms, and how both interact. Although there has been increasing interest in bat immune responses due to their ability to successfully cope with viral infections, few studies have explored behavioral anti-pathogen defense mechanisms. My main objective is to explore the interaction of cellular and molecular defense mechanisms, and behavioral alterations that results from infection in bats, and to outline current knowledge and future research avenues in this field.
动物通常会对感染产生复杂的免疫反应。除了细胞和分子防御机制外，动物还可以通过避免、抵抗或耐受病原体的负面影响来改变行为。这些行为通常与细胞和分子免疫反应有关。例如，疾病行为是由宿主炎症反应（例如细胞因子）引发的一组行为变化，有助于抵抗或耐受感染，并影响传播动态，如果患病动物社交退缩或被他人回避。为了全面了解蝙蝠群体和种群水平的病原体感染传播动态和后果，不仅要考虑细胞和分子防御机制，还要考虑行为机制以及两者如何相互作用。尽管由于蝙蝠能够成功应对病毒感染，人们对蝙蝠的免疫反应越来越感兴趣，但很少有研究探索行为抗病原体防御机制。我的主要目标是探索蝙蝠中感染引起的细胞和分子防御机制以及行为改变的相互作用，并概述该领域的现有知识和未来研究途径。
