News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Bacteria hijack a meningeal neuroimmune axis to facilitate brain invasion. Parent comment

Re:Bacteria hijack a meningeal neuroimmune axis to facilitat... by ramraj07 on Sunday March 12, 2023 @03:53PM (#35125340)
Viruses like rabies are interesting because they are actually not as serious in the species they evolved to infect; just turns out they rapidly kill some other species (us) that they don’t care about.

Make no mistake, rabies virus also has multiple immune evading mechanisms that are unluckily supercharged in humans.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Bacteria hijack a meningeal neuroimmune axis to facilitat... by fnordpiglet on Sunday March 12, 2023 @04:11PM (#35125581)
Yeah I expect that’s the case - the bubonic plague spread via the reservoir fleas and rats, etc.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Bacteria hijack a meningeal neuroimmune axis to facilitat... by alexvoda on Sunday March 12, 2023 @09:07PM (#35129206)
That may actually have not been the case: https://theconversation.com/the-black-death-may-not-have-bee...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Bacteria hijack a meningeal neuroimmune axis to facilitat... by hnick on Monday March 13, 2023 @01:51AM (#35131639)
Sounds a little like funnel web spider venom - just an evolutionary accident it's so potent to humans, at no evolutionary drawback for its main role.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Bacteria hijack a meningeal neuroimmune axis to facilitat... by acyou on Monday March 13, 2023 @08:46AM (#35134966)
Thought rabies usually killed dogs?

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6823e1.htm#:~:text=....

CDC says it kills 99% regardless.

Why would it evolve this way?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Bacteria hijack a meningeal neuroimmune axis to facilitat... by EEBio on Monday March 13, 2023 @10:22AM (#35136087)
I doubt that rabies has evolutionary developed to target dogs. It’s just a “happy” accident that dogs are so plentiful and can infect many other animals (until recently at least).

If I had to guess I’d say rabies had evolutionarily targeted species that today are largely asymptomatic and can easily survive a rabies infection, like bats or birds.

[ Parent | on HN ]