Ticks, being vectors for a variety of pathogens such as tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), have developed defense mechanisms and pathways against infections, allowing them to control the virus at a level that does not hinder their fitness and development. At the present moment, only a few studies focused on interactions between ticks and TBEV on a molecular level have been published. Here, a possible application of MALDI-TOF MS as a research tool for the investigation of tick-virus interactions was shown. Mass spectrometry (MS) profiles of TBEV-infected and non-infected IRE/CTVM19 tick cell line were compared using principal component analysis. MS spectra were clustered based on the cultivation time of cells, but not their infection status. Nevertheless, the analysis of loading plots revealed different factors (peaks) being involved in the clustering of infected and non-infected cells. Out of them, nine were assigned with proteins: five and four for non-infected and infected cells, respectively. Peak with m/z 8565 was found to be of interest because it was suppressed upon TBEV infection and assigned to proteasome subunit alpha type (B7QE67).
Keywords: Biotyping; MALDI-TOF MS; TBEV; Tick cell line; Tick-virus interaction.
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