MADRID, 20 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Studying bats’ responses to SARS-CoV-2 may provide key information on how and when to best use existing therapies for COVID-19, and to develop new treatments, according to new research published in the journal Science Immunology ‘.
The review, led by Professor Marcel Nold and Associate Professor Claudia Nold, from the Department of Pediatrics at Monash University and the Hudson Institute for Medical Research, written in collaboration with colleagues from Australia and China, is an important review of how the The virus that has caused the current pandemic wreaks havoc on the human immune system.
Since it was first identified in December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has mutated, and the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variant strains are more infectious than the original strain. Specifically, the Delta strain is again between 60% and 79% more transmissible than the Alpha mutant, and presumably more deadly, according to Professor Nold. It states that “the need for effective therapies remains urgent, at least in part due to the occurrence of mutations.”
The authors caution that “preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection, or allowing patients to eradicate it, represents the ultimate goal in the fight against COVID-19: but it is not known when either will be possible. reliably “.
“Therefore, efforts to identify safe and effective therapies to prevent COVID from progressing to the moderate and severe stages of the disease are critical in the fight against the disease,” says Professor Nold.
Bats contract the virus but develop minimal illness. The authors state that “preventing the progression to severe disease or treating it effectively – in other words, emulating bats – would significantly alleviate suffering and save lives.”
According to Associate Professor Nold, studying how bats resist coronaviruses holds great promise not only for SARS-CoV-2 infections, but will also “better prepare us for the next epidemic or pandemic.”
The review states that the common ancestor of the current COVID virus probably appeared in bats between 40 and 70 years ago, “although the exact bat species or intermediate host involved in the 2019 outbreak remains difficult to determine.”
Although bats can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, they do not show clinical effects or have the same lung problems that affect humans so much.
The authors suggest that some of the ways that bats appear to resist COVID could be used in therapeutics, such as by fine-tuning the human immune response to the virus in ways that bats appear to use, including enhancing interferon-like responses. I and III or – once severe disease has developed – the blocking of inflammasomes to mimic what happens in bats.
Associate Professor Nold says this “could minimize the excessive inflammation, immune depletion, and cytokine storms experienced in humans.”
Building on this insights, interdisciplinary authors discuss the best strategies in terms of choice and timing of the various currently available treatments, as well as currently underdeveloped pathways that may hold promise for alleviating the suffering caused by COVID- 19 worldwide.
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