Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an emerging zoonosis that may cause long-term neurological sequelae or even death. Thus, there is a growing interest in understanding the factors of TBE pathogenesis. Viral genetic determinants may greatly affect the severity and consequences of TBE. In this study, nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) of the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) was tested as such a determinant. NS1s of three strains with similar neuroinvasiveness belonging to the European, Siberian and Far-Eastern subtypes of TBEV were studied. Transfection of mouse cells with plasmids encoding NS1 of the three TBEV subtypes led to different levels of NS1 protein accumulation in and secretion from the cells. NS1s of TBEV were able to trigger cytokine production either in isolated mouse splenocytes or in mice after delivery of NS1 encoding plasmids. The profile and dynamics of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10 and IFN-γ differed between the strains. These results demonstrated the involvement of TBEV NS1 in triggering an immune response and indicated the diversity of NS1 as one of the genetic factors of TBEV pathogenicity.
Keywords: nonstructural protein 1 (NS1); pro-inflammatory cytokines; tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV).