ABSTRACT
Western immunoblotting of the serum and spinal fluid of patients with tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) revealed the presence of antibodies against non-structural and internal virion proteins. Antibodies against different viral proteins have been shown to appear 8 days postinfection and to circulate for more than 2 months in case of acute TBE. Antibodies against structural glycoprotein E and non-structural glycoprotein NS1 do not prevail over antibodies against other kinds of viral proteins. The large viral non-structural proteins NS5 and NS3 and small hydrophobic proteins NS2A and NS4B can cause an effective immune response as well. There is no strong correlation between immune response spectrum and fever or meningitis forms of disease. However, sera of patients with chronic TBE contained IgM antibodies to virus-specific proteins more than 1 year later and IgG antibodies with very low titers (if any).
