Tolerance and persistence of ebola virus in primary cells from mops condylurus, a potential ebola virus reservoir

TY - JOUR

T1 - Tolerance and persistence of ebola virus in primary cells from mops condylurus, a potential ebola virus reservoir

AU - Bokelmann, Marcel

AU - Vogel, Uwe

AU - Debeljak, Franka

AU - Düx, Ariane

AU - Riesle‐sbarbaro, Silke

AU - Lander, Angelika

AU - Wahlbrink, Annette

AU - Kromarek, Nicole

AU - Neil, Stuart

AU - Couacy‐hymann, Emmanuel

AU - Prescott, Joseph

AU - Kurth, Andreas

N1 - Funding Information: Was partially provided by Elsa?Neumann Scholarship from the state of Berlin, Germany (MB). MARV and EBOV?GFP were kindly provided by the Institute of Virology, Philipps?University Marburg. The authors are grateful to Katharina Hansen?Kant and Norman Kirchoff for technical assistance. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. o[.

PY - 2021/11

Y1 - 2021/11

N2 - Although there have been documented Ebola virus disease outbreaks for more than 40 years, the natural reservoir host has not been identified. Recent studies provide evidence that the Angolan free‐tailed bat (Mops condylurus), an insectivorous microbat, is a possible ebolavirus reser-voir. To investigate the potential role of this bat species in the ecology of ebolaviruses, replication, tolerance, and persistence of Ebola virus (EBOV) were investigated in 10 different primary bat cell isolates from M. condylurus. Varying EBOV replication kinetics corresponded to the expression levels of the integral membrane protein NPC1. All primary cells were highly tolerant to EBOV infection without cytopathic effects. The observed persistent EBOV infection for 150 days in lung primary cells, without resultant selective pressure leading to virus mutation, indicate the intrinsic ability of EBOV to persist in this bat species. These results provide further evidence for this bat species to be a likely reservoir of ebolaviruses.

AB - Although there have been documented Ebola virus disease outbreaks for more than 40 years, the natural reservoir host has not been identified. Recent studies provide evidence that the Angolan free‐tailed bat (Mops condylurus), an insectivorous microbat, is a possible ebolavirus reser-voir. To investigate the potential role of this bat species in the ecology of ebolaviruses, replication, tolerance, and persistence of Ebola virus (EBOV) were investigated in 10 different primary bat cell isolates from M. condylurus. Varying EBOV replication kinetics corresponded to the expression levels of the integral membrane protein NPC1. All primary cells were highly tolerant to EBOV infection without cytopathic effects. The observed persistent EBOV infection for 150 days in lung primary cells, without resultant selective pressure leading to virus mutation, indicate the intrinsic ability of EBOV to persist in this bat species. These results provide further evidence for this bat species to be a likely reservoir of ebolaviruses.

KW - Bat

KW - Ebola virus

KW - Persistent infection

KW - Reservoir host

KW - Tolerance

KW - Virus replication

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118409338&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/v13112186

DO - 10.3390/v13112186

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85118409338

SN - 1999-4915

VL - 13

JO - Viruses

JF - Viruses

IS - 11

M1 - 2186

ER -