Comparative Pathogenesis of Two Lineages of Powassan Virus Reveals Distinct Clinical Outcome, Neuropathology, and Inflammation.

ABSTRACT: Tick-borne flaviviruses (TBFV) can cause severe neuroinvasive disease which may result in death or long-term neurological deficit in over 50% of survivors. Multiple mechanisms for invasion of the central nervous system (CNS) by flaviviruses have been proposed including axonal transport, transcytosis, endothelial infection, and Trojan horse routes. Flaviviruses may utilize different or multiple mechanisms of neuroinvasion depending on the specific virus, infection site, and host variability. In this work we have shown that the infection of BALB/cJ mice with either Powassan virus lineage I (Powassan virus) or lineage II (deer tick virus) results in distinct spatial tropism of infection in the CNS which correlates with unique clinical presentations for each lineage. Comparative transcriptomic

SUBMITTER: Reynolds ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11209061 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature