Tissue tropism of Saint Louis encephalitis virus: Histopathology triggered by epidemic and non-epidemic strains isolated in Argentina

•SLEV CbaAr-4005 resulted in high viremia, wide tropism, and neuroinvasion.•This was associated with inflammatory pathology in the infected organs.•Infection of spleens caused loss of B cells and alteration of germinal centers.

Saint Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) reemerged in South America, and caused encephalitis outbreaks at the beginning of the 21st century. To enhance our knowledge about SLEV virulence, we performed comparative pathogenesis studies in Swiss albino mice inoculated with two different variants, the epidemic strain CbaAr-4005 and the non-epidemic strain CorAn-9275. Only the infection of mice with SLEV strain CbaAr-4005 resulted in high viremia, invasion of peripheral tissues including the lungs, kidney, and spleen, and viral neuroinvasion. This was associated with inflammatory pathology in the lungs, spleen, and brain as well as morbidity and mortality. In contrast, neither signs of desease nor viral replication were observed in mice infected with strain CorAn-9275. Interestingly, important loss of B cells and development of altered germinal centers (GC) were detected in the spleen of mice infected with strain CbaAr-4005, whereas mice infected with SLEV CorAn-9275 developed prominent GC with conserved follicular architecture, and neutralizing antibodies.