Oxidative damage varies in response to bacterial, fungal and viral antigen challenges in bats

Abstract

The immune system plays an important role in defending against pathogens and regulating physiological homeostasis, but the strength of the immune responses depends on the type of pathogen. The immune system of bats shows a high variability in responsiveness towards various pathogens; they can safely harbor certain pathogens that are highly lethal to other mammals. Oxidative stress may act as a pathophysiological cellular mechanism mediating the immunological function of bats because of its potentially detrimental effects on physiological homeostasis, fertility, and longevity. By experimentally exposing greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) to three antigens, it was previously shown that animals reacted immunologically most strongly to bacterial and viral antigens, but not to fungal one. As a follow up, in this study we observed that both bacterial and fungal antigens induced a significant increase of plasma oxidative damage, whereas viral antigens did not cause any increase of plasma oxidative damage at all albeit the mild immune response. Thus, experimental bats were able to avoid oxidative stress only in the face of a viral antigen, possibly by dampening inflammatory signaling. Bats may be able to handle viral infections and live well beyond expectations by reducing the detrimental effects of molecular oxidation.

Serum proteomics reveals a tolerant immune phenotype across multiple pathogen taxa in wild vampire bats

“…Overall, our findings show that a multi-pathogen approach can reveal a similar suite of immune mechanisms responding to select viral infections that is distinct from those to other studied pathogen taxa. These distinct immune responses to viral and non-viral infections are consistent with classic and recent findings in vertebrates ( 123 , 124 ) as well as in other bat species ( 125 ). Further, we identify potential biomarkers that could expand our understanding of pathogenesis in bats.…”