Bat ASC2: A Potent Negative Regulator of Inflammasomes
Bats are special in their ability to live long and host many emerging viruses. Previous studies showed that bats have altered inflammasomes, which are central players in aging and infection. However, the role of inflammasome signaling in combating inflammatory diseases remains poorly understood. Watch this video to see what bats can teach us about co-existing with viruses and preventing severe disease.
“This suggests that the high-level activity of ASC2 is a key mechanism by which bats keep inflammation under control, with implications for their long lifespan and unique status as a reservoir for viruses,” explained Dr Matae Ahn , first author and co-corresponding author of the study.
Transcript
00:00:00 foreign mammal capable of flight bats have developed some Innovative strategies to cope with the extreme stresses of flying an energy consuming activity that drives up their body temperature and can cause plenty of cell stresses and injuries such as DNA damage that accumulate throughout the body but while our back flaps away
00:00:21 unperturbed such stresses in any other mammal like us humans would activate an internal defense mechanism called an inflamazone that can lead to serious damage to cells and organs and drive a broad spectrum of diseases including autoimmune and autoinflammatory illnesses infectious cardiovascular metabolic and even neurodegenerative diseases so scientists at euken us
00:00:44 Medical School set out to discover what makes bats so resilient by studying what happens when a white blood cell detects a threat like a virus after enveloping the virus the cell activates its inflamasome which in humans leads to the activation of other parts of the immune system while the human inflammasome begins to assemble bats have developed ways to keep their
00:01:05 immune system under control one of these tricks is to produce a powerful protein called asc2 which clamps down on the activity of the inflammazone humans too produce asc2 but because it is a weakened version of the protein the inflammasome can spin out of control leading to a whole lot of damage and a host of diseases
00:01:26 the ability to dampen their inflammatory responses means that bats can also carry many viruses without getting sick and enjoy an unusually long lifespan given their small size so could the human asc2 protein be baptized to help us when the scientists compared the two proteins they identified four key differences that make bat esc2 so
00:01:49 effective when the human asc2 protein obtains these mutations it too becomes superpowered like its bat cousin offering a possible new treatment approach for many different inflammasome-driven illnesses and maybe even help slow aging [Music]