Muscular dystrophy is a group of genetic disorders characterized by progressive muscle weakness. In the early 2000s, a new classification of muscular dystrophy, dystroglycanopathy, was established. Dystroglycanopathy often associates with abnormalities in the central nervous system. Currently, at least eighteen genes have been identified that are responsible for dystroglycanopathy, and despite ...

Bacillus pumilus strain Sh18 cell wall polysaccharide (CWP), cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b, was purified and its chemical structure was elucidated using fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, and sugar-specific degradation procedures. Two major structures, 1,5-poly(ribitol phosphate) and 1,3-poly(glycero...

The tar genes directing the synthesis of poly(ribitol phosphate), the main teichoic acid in Bacillus subtilis strain W23, were sequenced. They are organized in two divergently transcribed operons, tarABIJKL and tarDF, as are the tag genes specifying poly(glycerol phosphate) synthesis in B. subtilis 168. The features of the tar genes as well as the putative participation of their products in the...

Wall teichoic acids are anionic, phosphate-rich polymers linked to the peptidoglycan of gram-positive bacteria. In Bacillus subtilis, the predominant wall teichoic acid types are poly(glycerol phosphate) in strain 168 and poly(ribitol phosphate) in strain W23, and they are synthesized by the tag and tar gene products, respectively. Growing evidence suggests that wall teichoic acids are essentia...

The binding of Mg2+ to the ribitol teichoic acid of Staphylococcus aureus H walls was examined by equilibrium dialysis in solution and in the intact wall; the influence of alanyl ester groups on binding was determined. In solution the ribitol polymer had a lower affinity than did a glycerol teichoic acid and bound Mg2+ in the ratio Mg2+/P of 1:1. The presence of alanyl ester residues caused a d...

Safety and immunogenicity of 2 investigational formulations of diphtheria, tetanus and Haemophilus influenzae type b antigens of the combined diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis-hepatitis B-inactivated poliomyelitis-Hib vaccine (DTPa-HBV-IPV/Hib) were evaluated in a Primary (NCT01248884) and a Booster vaccination (NCT01453998) study. In the Primary study, 721 healthy infants (randomized 1:1:...

The cell walls of an 80/81 strain of Staphylococcus aureus (NYH-6) contain alanine, glycine, glutamic acid, lysine, muramic acid, glucosamine, and ribitol phosphate. 94 per cent of the phosphorus and 41 per cent of the glucosamine are removed by extraction of the cell walls with hot 5 per cent TCA, but significant amounts of the other constituents are not extracted by this procedure. The residu...

Many gram-positive bacteria form substituted polymers of glycerol and ribitol phosphate esters known as teichoic acids. Utilizing the relative specificity of cold concentrated hydrofluoric acid in the hydrolysis of polyphosphate esters it proved possible to quantitatively assay the teichoic acid-derived glycerol and ribitol from gram-positive bacteria added to various soils and sediments. The...

We conducted 3 phase III, randomized, open-label, clinical trials assessing the safety, reactogenicity (all studies), immunogenicity (Primary vaccination study) and persistence of immune responses (Booster study) to the combined diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine (DTPa-IPV/Hib) in Chinese infants and toddlers. In the Pilot study (NCT00964028...