World's biggest bat organoid model built to combat emerging infectious diseases

On the medical front.

Korean researchers have developed the world's largest bat organoid platform that is expected to enhance the study of zoonotic viruses.

Lee Eun-jin explains.

International outbreaks of viral infections in recent history have mostly originated from viruses transmitted from bats to humans.

Mostly recently, there was the COVID-19 global pandemic, and before that, outbreaks like MERS, SARS and Ebola.

As most zoonotic viruses reside in bats, these nocturnal creatures are often referred to as "virus reservoirs."

Despite bats playing a crucial role in virus research, there has been a severe lack of experimental models based on bats.

But a Korean research team has now developed a collection of bat organoid models spanning five species and four organ types.

Organoids mimic the complexity of organs in a laboratory setting,

and the Korean research team created organoids that replicate the lungs, kidneys, airways, and small intestines of bats, which are the key organs involved in viral infection and transmission. This model will help researchers comprehensively explore host-pathogen interactions.

To build these organoids, they used five bat species commonly found in Korea and Northeast Asia,

including the Myotis macrodactylus and Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. While bat intestinal organoids have been replicated previously, this marks the first time that 20 organoids—four for each of the five bat species—have been successfully created, making it the world's largest biological model.

"The significance of this work lies in the fact that we created organoids from a variety of native bat species. This can be effectively used not only for studying new viruses but also for developing new treatments."

The team took the research a step further by developing a drug screening system using these bat organoids.

When tested with treatments like COVID-19 therapeutics, this new system demonstrated faster and more accurate assessments of drug efficacy compared to conventional methods.

This breakthrough is expected to accelerate research into the infection mechanisms and treatment development for future emerging and mutating viruses.

The research findings were published in the prestigious scientific journal Science.

Lee Eunjin, Arirang News.