Heterocomplexes of tick-borne encephalitis structural and non-structural proteins.

The existence of the complex of structural and non-structural proteins in the tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus is shown. The complex was isolated from virus-containing cultural medium by immunoaffinity chromatography on monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). By enzyme immunoassay and immunoblotting with the use of appropriate MAbs it was demonstrated that this complex consists of structural (protein E), and non-structural (NS1) glycoproteins. Also, the trimer E-NS1-NS3 can be isolated. It is proposed that this trimer is the viral replicative complex.