Ebola-carrying bats may be heroes as well as villains

[mfcorey1]

Bats are living up to their frightening reputation in the world's worst Ebola outbreak as prime suspects for spreading the deadly virus to humans, but scientists believe they may also shed valuable light on fighting infection.

Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including Ebola, rabies and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), without becoming sick themselves.

While that makes them a fearsome reservoir of disease, especially in the forests of Africa where they migrate vast distances, it also opens the intriguing possibility that scientists might learn their trick in keeping killers like Ebola at bay.

"If we can understand how they do it then that could lead to better ways to treat infections that are highly lethal in people and other mammals," said Olivier Restif, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in Britain.

Clues are starting to emerge following gene analysis, which suggest bats' capacity to evade Ebola could be linked with their other stand-out ability -- the power of flight.

Flying requires the bat metabolism to run at a very high rate, causing stress and potential cell damage, and experts think bats may have developed a mechanism to limit this damage by having parts of their immune system permanently switched on.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/ebola-carrying-bats-may-be-heroes-as-well-as-villains/ar-BBcw3Tl?ocid=mailsignout

[NV Whino]

1. Aw, and here I thought learning to fly was going to be the cure

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. Just don't rub any bats on your eyes and you should be OK. nt

[woolldog]

5. What if

a bat bites you?

[Recursion]

3. One quarter of mammal species are bats

I was astounded to learn that today.

[Sunlei]

4. interesting as fruit bats are a popular local food. A small child was the first ebola case.

The child may have touched a sick (a 'downer bat' easy for a kid to pick-up) fruit bat, caught ebola before the animal was cooked.