Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a serious infectious human disease affecting the central nervous system (CNS) (Ruzek et al., 2019). Between 10,000 and 15,000 cases are reported in Europe and Asia annually (Bogovic and Strle, 2015). The causative agent of the disease, TBE virus (TBEV), is a representative of arboviruses, i.e. viruses, which are transmitted by blood-sucking arthropods. Taxonomically, the virus belongs to the Flaviviridae family, the genus Flavivirus (Simmonds et al., 2017). The viral genome is a single-stranded RNA encoding one polyprotein that is cleaved into three structural (C, M, E) and seven non-structural proteins. The nucleocapsid of the virus consists of the viral nucleic acid and capsid protein C. The nucleocapsid is enveloped by a lipid membrane containing proteins M and E (Fuzik et al., 2018). The main surface antigen is protein E, which allows binding with the surface receptors of the host cells to mediate infection (Heinz, 1986).