We've looked at bats for a long time.... #SOA21 They have strong interferon responses, but not strong inflammation.... 
So what happens instead? #SOA21 They will tolerate high levels of viraemia with little symptoms. Bats are old... 65million years ago - they appeared at the end of the dinosaurs! They are far longer lived that other mammals. Senescence is late - more towards end of life.
They use 4x as much oxygen and have a high Hb level. #SOA21
Very social and circadian animal - thus, high viral transfer.... #SOA21 Social behaviour drives a lot of immune response. Circadian and seasonal variation....
Interesting we're seeing genetics potentially coding for increased risk? #SOA21
How have bats overcome viral problems? A delicious diagram.... :P #SOA21 Bats have downplayed toll-like receptors, unlike humans. Interestingly playing around with TLR's also can induce AKI in rats.
ALSO of note, TLR 7 may code for a poorer outcome in some young men with COVID-19 versus females. Females have a backup copy of these crs... #SOA21
Bats have a lot of transposons... this probably gives them a mutating immune system. #SOA21 Vampire bats need a lot of anti-clotting ability because they suck blood (anticoag in their saliva!)
10-15% of lethal COVID has autoantibodies against type 1 inferons... so bats? Yes - well, the RIG set up and the JAK-STAT pathway in bats code for protection against COVID. #SOA21
The inflammasome! It's inhibited by metformin (of interest). Messing around with circadian rhythm also annoys the inflammasome (new fave word here). #SOA21
Flying, hypermetabolic, warm - does this kill viruses in bats? Hmm - may help. But this hypermet status = robust against oxidative stress. They don't functionally age early and they tolerate mitochondrial DNA from dmg cells well (which shouldn't be in the blood stream) #SOA21
Bat v Human.... bats never really achieve high inflamm state. They have high interferon, but no large inflamm response... Humans heavily invested in adaptive immune system, bats in their innate.... #SOA21
65 million years of bat evolution allows for their adaptations. Some history repeating itself, with words from Defoe in the 1600's.... how have/will adapt? #SOA21
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