Vindication for bats as their genes could hold key against COVID, cancer

Bats are known to be disease carriers but a new study indicates that their genes could hold clues in the fight against viral diseases and maybe even cancer.

A Jamaican fruit bat is pictured in this image. (Wikimedia Commons)

4 min readKochiOct 27, 2023 01:42 PM IST First published on: Oct 27, 2023 at 09:02 AM IST

Perhaps no other animal since the rat has faced a reputation crisis like bats after the pandemic. But now, it might be their turn for salvation as scientists believe the key to fighting deadly diseases like COVID, Nipah and cancer could lie within their genes.

The Kerala Health Department on Wednesday sounded an alert that samples taken from fruit bats in Wayanad district showed the presence of antibodies to the deadly Nipah virus in their body. Even before that and even before the pandemic, they were known to be carriers of disease. But there is something remarkable about an animal that can carry all these diseases yet remain immune to them.

Surely, bats are remarkable for many reasons. They are the only mammals that can fly and they have a bizarrely long lifespan. But the most extraordinary part is their extremely strong immune system that stops viruses like Covid-19 and Ebola from ravaging their bodies. The same immune systems also keep bats nearly cancer-free. And, scientists believe we could learn from that to treat many diseases better.

Also read | China sends its youngest-ever crew to space as it seeks to put astronauts on moon before 2030

“Our work generated several significant genetic leads that help explain how bats fight off viruses and cancer. In the future, these genes can be experimentally confirmed as the cause of bats’ health traits. Then, I believe insights from our study and other studies can lead to gene therapies, immunotherapies, and other therapies that help us mimic the anticancer and antiviral traits of bats,” said Armin Schebhen, postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CHSL) in New York, to indianexpress.com in a press statement.

Schebhen and fellow researchers collected genetic samples of the Jamaican fruit bat and Mesoamerican moustached bat. After sequencing the genomes and comparing them to other mammals, the researchers found that bats evolved rapidly and that this streamlined bat genomes to defend against infection and cancer.

“We didn’t know immune system genes were so positively selected in bat genomes. Bats have a number of very unusual things about them. They don’t respond to infections the way we do. In retrospect, it’s not surprising that this difference in the immune system may be involved in both the ageing and cancer response,” said Richard McCombie , co-author of the research.

After comparing the genetic sequences to other mammal genomes, including that of humans, the researchers found a shift in the levels of two inflammatory protein-coding genes— interferon-alpha and omega.

Also read | Life on Earth ‘under siege’ as climate change pushes planet into ‘uncharted territory’

According to Schebhen, bats “dialled down their immune system’s alarms” by shedding the genes that produce interferon-alpha. This could be the secret behind their high tolerance for viruses. It essentially prevents overactive immune responses that harm healthy tissues. That kind of reaction is one of the reasons infections are so damaging to humans.

Apart from that, the researchers also found that bat genomes contain more changes in cancer-related genes compared to other mammals. This includes six that repair DNA and 46 that suppress tumours.

The researchers are now working on finding out how bats’ immune genes are regulated and how they are expressed in different parts of the body. The hope is that this work will help discover links between immunity, ageing, and cancer. It could also lead to improved treatments for many diseases.

The results of the results have been published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.