Emerg Infect Dis. 2018 Jul;24(7):1315-1323. doi: 10.3201/eid2407.180059.
We determined levels of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus (TBEV) RNA in serum samples obtained from 80 patients during the initial phase of TBE in Slovenia. For most samples, levels were within the range of 3-6 log copies RNA/mL. Levels were higher in female patients than in male patients, but we found no association between virus load and several laboratory and clinical parameters, including severity of TBE. However, a weak humoral immune response was associated with a more severe disease course, suggesting that inefficient clearance of virus results in a more serious illness. To determine whether a certain genetic lineage of TBEV had a higher virulence potential, we obtained 56 partial envelope protein gene sequences by directly sequencing reverse transcription PCR products from clinical samples of patients. This method provided a large set of patient-derived TBEV sequences. We observed no association between phylogenetic clades and virus load or disease severity.
我们测定了 80 例斯洛文尼亚患者在乙型脑炎（TBE）初始阶段血清样本中的 tick-borne encephalitis（TBE）病毒（TBEV）RNA 水平。对于大多数样本，RNA 水平在 3-6 对数拷贝/mL 范围内。女性患者的水平高于男性患者，但我们未发现病毒载量与包括 TBE 严重程度在内的几个实验室和临床参数之间存在关联。然而，较弱的体液免疫反应与更严重的疾病过程相关，这表明病毒清除效率低下导致更严重的疾病。为了确定 TBEV 的特定遗传谱系是否具有更高的毒力潜能，我们通过直接从患者临床样本的逆转录 PCR 产物中测序获得了 56 个包膜蛋白基因序列的部分序列。这种方法提供了大量的患者衍生的 TBEV 序列。我们未观察到系统发育枝与病毒载量或疾病严重程度之间存在关联。
