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Vaccines
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Research in Bat-Borne Zoonotic Viruses
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Research in Bat-Borne Zoonotic Viruses

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "Vaccines against Infectious Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 35672

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Davide Lelli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna "Bruno Ubertini", IZSLER. Via Bianchi, 9 - 25124 Brescia, Italy.
Interests: virology; epidemiology; zoonotic infections; immunology; serolgy; emerging infectious diseases; diagnosis; molecular virology
Dr. Ana Moreno

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Virology Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia ed Emilia-Romagna, Via Bianchi 9, 25124 Brescia, Italy
Interests: avian and swine influenza A viruses; influenza D viruses; coronaviruses; suid herpesvirus
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Interest in bat-related viruses has increased considerably in the last decade, leading to the discovery of an increasing number of new emerging viruses with zoonotic potential in several bat species.

Bats are suggested to be important reservoir hosts of many zoonotic viruses that can cross species barriers to infect humans and other domestic or wild mammals, including lyssaviruses, henipaviruses, ebolaviruses, marburgviruses, and Mers and Sars-coronaviruses. A bat origin of the recent SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV), responsible for COVID-19, which started in Wuhan (China) in December 2019, has also been hypothesized. However, the majority of bat-borne viruses that can cause severe diseases in humans and other mammals do not cause apparent clinical signs in bats. Consequently, it has been assumed that bats may have a “special” relationship with viruses based on physiological, ecological, evolutionary, and/or immunological aspects, which allow them to act as special reservoir hosts for a variety of viruses that lead to efficient pathogen maintenance, evolution, and spread.

Currently, the potential zoonotic risks associated with bats and their fascinating and special relationship with viruses continue to attract the attention of many researchers worldwide. Therefore, surveillance on bat populations is constantly increasing in order to clarify the genetic diversity of bat-associated viruses, as well as to acquire comprehensive information on bat–pathogen interactions and spillover phenomena with the aim of being prepared for zoonotic viral infectious diseases.

In this Special Issue, we invite you to submit research papers and reviews on a wide range of research topics related to Bat-Borne Zoonotic Viruses. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) epidemiology, diagnosis, pathogenesis, vaccines, immunology, virome of bats, genetic and antigenic characterization, viral evolution, and phylogenetic studies.

Dr. Davide Lelli
Dr. Ana Moreno
Guest Editors

Keywords

  • Virus
  • Bat
  • Zoonosis
  • Emerging infectious diseases

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 2650 KiB  
Article
Detection of Alpha- and Betacoronaviruses in Miniopterus fuliginosus and Rousettus leschenaultii, two species of Sri Lankan Bats
by Therese Muzeniek, Thejanee Perera, Sahan Siriwardana, Dilara Bas, Fatimanur Kaplan, Mizgin Öruc, Beate Becker-Ziaja, Franziska Schwarz, Gayani Premawansa, Sunil Premawansa, Inoka Perera, Wipula Yapa, Andreas Nitsche and Claudia Kohl
Vaccines 2021, 9(6), 650; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9060650 - 15 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4060
Abstract
Bats are known to be potential reservoirs of numerous human-pathogenic viruses. They have been identified as natural hosts for coronaviruses, causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in humans. Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 interest in the prevalence of coronaviruses in bats [...] Read more.
Bats are known to be potential reservoirs of numerous human-pathogenic viruses. They have been identified as natural hosts for coronaviruses, causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in humans. Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 interest in the prevalence of coronaviruses in bats was newly raised. In this study we investigated different bat species living in a sympatric colony in the Wavul Galge cave (Koslanda, Sri Lanka). In three field sessions (in 2018 and 2019), 395 bats were captured (Miniopterus, Rousettus, Hipposideros and Rhinolophus spp.) and either rectal swabs or fecal samples were collected. From these overall 396 rectal swab and fecal samples, the screening for coronaviruses with nested PCR resulted in 33 positive samples, 31 of which originated from Miniopterus fuliginosus and two from Rousettus leschenaultii. Sanger sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the obtained 384-nt fragment of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase revealed that the examined M. fuliginosus bats excrete alphacoronaviruses and the examined R. leschenaultii bats excrete betacoronaviruses. Despite the sympatric roosting habitat, the coronaviruses showed host specificity and seemed to be limited to one species. Our results represent an important basis to better understand the prevalence of coronaviruses in Sri Lankan bats and may provide a basis for pursuing studies on particular bat species of interest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research in Bat-Borne Zoonotic Viruses)
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11 pages, 1055 KiB  
Article
Identifying Suspect Bat Reservoirs of Emerging Infections
by Daniel Crowley, Daniel Becker, Alex Washburne and Raina Plowright
Vaccines 2020, 8(2), 228; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8020228 - 17 May 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4268
Abstract
Bats host a number of pathogens that cause severe disease and onward transmission in humans and domestic animals. Some of these pathogens, including henipaviruses and filoviruses, are considered a concern for future pandemics. There has been substantial effort to identify these viruses in [...] Read more.
Bats host a number of pathogens that cause severe disease and onward transmission in humans and domestic animals. Some of these pathogens, including henipaviruses and filoviruses, are considered a concern for future pandemics. There has been substantial effort to identify these viruses in bats. However, the reservoir hosts for Ebola virus are still unknown and henipaviruses are largely uncharacterized across their distribution. Identifying reservoir species is critical in understanding the viral ecology within these hosts and the conditions that lead to spillover. We collated surveillance data to identify taxonomic patterns in prevalence and seroprevalence and to assess sampling efforts across species. We systematically collected data on filovirus and henipavirus detections and used a machine-learning algorithm, phylofactorization, in order to search the bat phylogeny for cladistic patterns in filovirus and henipavirus infection, accounting for sampling efforts. Across sampled bat species, evidence for filovirus infection was widely dispersed across the sampled phylogeny. We found major gaps in filovirus sampling in bats, especially in Western Hemisphere species. Evidence for henipavirus infection was clustered within the Pteropodidae; however, no other clades have been as intensely sampled. The major predictor of filovirus and henipavirus exposure or infection was sampling effort. Based on these results, we recommend expanding surveillance for these pathogens across the bat phylogenetic tree. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research in Bat-Borne Zoonotic Viruses)
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Review

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41 pages, 10877 KiB  
Review
Update on Potentially Zoonotic Viruses of European Bats
by Claudia Kohl, Andreas Nitsche and Andreas Kurth
Vaccines 2021, 9(7), 690; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9070690 - 23 Jun 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3990
Abstract
Bats have been increasingly gaining attention as potential reservoir hosts of some of the most virulent viruses known. Numerous review articles summarize bats as potential reservoir hosts of human-pathogenic zoonotic viruses. For European bats, just one review article is available that we published [...] Read more.
Bats have been increasingly gaining attention as potential reservoir hosts of some of the most virulent viruses known. Numerous review articles summarize bats as potential reservoir hosts of human-pathogenic zoonotic viruses. For European bats, just one review article is available that we published in 2014. The present review provides an update on the earlier article and summarizes the most important viruses found in European bats and their possible implications for Public Health. We identify the research gaps and recommend monitoring of these viruses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research in Bat-Borne Zoonotic Viruses)
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19 pages, 1240 KiB  
Review
What Does Plant-Based Vaccine Technology Offer to the Fight against COVID-19?
by Sergio Rosales-Mendoza, Verónica A. Márquez-Escobar, Omar González-Ortega, Ricardo Nieto-Gómez and Jaime I. Arévalo-Villalobos
Vaccines 2020, 8(2), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8020183 - 14 Apr 2020
Cited by 68 | Viewed by 22472
Abstract
The emergence of new pathogenic viral strains is a constant threat to global health, with the new coronavirus strain COVID-19 as the latest example. COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has quickly spread around the globe. This pandemic demands rapid development of drugs [...] Read more.
The emergence of new pathogenic viral strains is a constant threat to global health, with the new coronavirus strain COVID-19 as the latest example. COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has quickly spread around the globe. This pandemic demands rapid development of drugs and vaccines. Plant-based vaccines are a technology with proven viability, which have led to promising results for candidates evaluated at the clinical level, meaning this technology could contribute towards the fight against COVID-19. Herein, a perspective in how plant-based vaccines can be developed against COVID-19 is presented. Injectable vaccines could be generated by using transient expression systems, which offer the highest protein yields and are already adopted at the industrial level to produce VLPs-vaccines and other biopharmaceuticals under GMPC-processes. Stably-transformed plants are another option, but this approach requires more time for the development of antigen-producing lines. Nonetheless, this approach offers the possibility of developing oral vaccines in which the plant cell could act as the antigen delivery agent. Therefore, this is the most attractive approach in terms of cost, easy delivery, and mucosal immunity induction. The development of multiepitope, rationally-designed vaccines is also discussed regarding the experience gained in expression of chimeric immunogenic proteins in plant systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research in Bat-Borne Zoonotic Viruses)
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