ReviewiScience2022
Revising the paradigm: Are bats really pathogen reservoirs or do they possess an efficient immune system?
Review in iScience, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Paramyxoviruses in Bats in Poland-The First Detection.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Ebola virus disease: A persistent challenge in global health security.Open veterinary journal · 2026Review
- Lyssavirus Antibody Detection in Cave-Dwelling Bats on Cat Ba Island, Vietnam: Implications for Zoonotic Surveillance.Veterinary sciences · 2025Article
- Differences in gut microbiota composition, diversity, and predicted functional activity between wild and captive zoo Carollia perspicillata in a One Health perspective.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2025Article
- Broad geographical circulation of a novel vesiculovirus in bats in the Mediterranean region.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Development of a semicomprehensive detection method for paramyxoviruses and its validation using Indonesian bats.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Detection of an Alphacoronavirus in a Brazilian Bat (Molossus sp.).Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Article
- Review
- Minimal risk ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Review
- The Unique Immune System of Bats: An Evolutionary Analysis and Bibliometric Study.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Microbial community dynamics in blood, faeces and oral secretions of neotropical bats in Casanare, Colombia.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Bat Ecology and Microbiome of the Gut: A Narrative Review of Associated Potentials in Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- A tale of endurance: bats, viruses and immune dynamics.Future microbiology · 2024Review
- Screening for Viruses in Indigenous Greek Black Pigs.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Gut Microbiota Composition of Insectivorous Synanthropic and Fructivorous Zoo Bats: A Direct Metagenomic Comparison.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- COVID-19 beyond the lungs: Unraveling its vascular impact and cardiovascular complications-mechanisms and therapeutic implications.Science progressReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
While bats are often referred to as reservoirs of viral pathogens, a meta-analysis of the literature reveals many cases in which there is not enough evidence to claim so. In many cases, bats are able to confront viruses, recover, and remain immune by developing a potent titer of antibodies, often without becoming a reservoir. In other cases, bats might have carried an ancestral virus that at some time point might have mutated into a human pathogen. Moreover, bats exhibit a balanced immune response against viruses that have evolved over millions of years. Using genomic tools, it is now possible to obtain a deeper understanding of that unique immune system and its variability across the order Chiroptera. We conclude, that with the exception of a few viruses, bats pose little zoonotic danger to humans and that they operate a highly efficient anti-inflammatory response that we should strive to understand.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.