Scientists Show That Tick-borne Flaviviruses Use A Novel Mechanism To Evade Host Defenses

Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have made the surprising discovery that flaviviruses, which cause such serious diseases as West Nile fever, yellow fever and forms of encephalitis, evade immune system defenses in different ways depending on whether they are transmitted by mosquitoes or ticks. This finding could lead to new approaches to developing vaccines and treatments against these illnesses.