| Bats are reputed to be reservoir hosts for a number of emerging zoonotic viruses such as Hendra Virus, Nipah virus, Ebola virus and SARS coronavirus. In recent years, bats are also being threatened by emerging pathogens such as White-nose syndrome, caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans in North American bats. The current lack of in vitro models to assess bat immune function, particularly in the North American microchiropteran bats has led us to develop specific tools to investigate bat immunity to infection. This Master's thesis highlights the monoclonal antibody tools that we have generated and the future experiments that will be done to study bat immunity. In this study, we identified a new mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb) reactive with Eptesicus fuscus immunoglobulins. The epitope recognized by mAb BT1-4F10 was localized to immunoglobulin light (lambda) chains. Examination of E. fuscus sera and heart extracts demonstrated that most secreted immunoglobulins utilized lambda light chains. Finally, mAb BT1-4F10 appeared to bind strictly to the epitope on Microchiropteran bat immunoglobulins, but did not cross-react with Megachiropteran bat immunoglobulins. In this study, we also describe three new mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAb) reactive with Pteropus alecto splenocytes. We used a Megachiropteran bat cell line as an immunogen for the production of monoclonal antibodies, using the generated mAbs to test for cross-reactivity with three Microchiropteran bat cell sources. Of the ant-megabat mAbs, mAb SI2-1E3 appeared to be cross-reactive with all three Microchiropteran cell sources. These bat-specific mAbs may have both basic and practical applications for studying and measuring immune responses in bats. |
