bat STING attenuates aging-related inflammation in female mice.

Bats, notable as the only flying mammals, serve as natural reservoir hosts for various highly pathogenic viruses in humans (e.g., SARS-CoV and Ebola virus).

Unconventional IFNω-like Genes Dominate the Type I IFN Locus and the Constitutive Antiviral Responses in Bats.

Bats are the natural reservoir hosts of some viruses, some of which may spill over to humans and cause global-scale pandemics. Different from humans, bats may coexist with high pathogenic viruses without showing symptoms of diseases. As one of the most important first defenses, bat type I IFNs (IFN-Is) were thought to play a role during this virus coexistence and thus were studied in recent years.

Identification of TMEM53 as a novel SADS-CoV restriction factor that targets viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

Zoonotic transmission of coronaviruses (CoVs) poses a serious public health threat. Swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), originating from a bat HKU2-related CoV, causes devastating swine diseases and poses a high risk of spillover to humans. Currently, licensed therapeutics that can prevent potential human outbreaks are unavailable.

ACE2-independent infection of T lymphocytes by SARS-CoV-2.

SARS-CoV-2 induced marked lymphopenia in severe patients with COVID-19. However, whether lymphocytes are targets of viral infection is yet to be determined, although SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen has been identified in T cells from patients. Here, we confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 viral antigen could be detected in patient peripheral blood cells (PBCs) or postmortem lung T cells, and the infectious virus could also be detected from viral antigen-positive PBCs.