Gonococci possessing certain opacity-associated (Opa) outer membrane proteins adhere to and are phagocytosed by human neutrophils in the absence of serum. Recently, it has been shown that serum-sensitive strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae possessing the appropriate lipooligosaccharide phenotype become serum resistant when grown in the presence of CMP-N-acetylneuraminic acid (CMP-NANA) because of ...

Clostridium perfringens can obtain sialic acid from host tissues by the activity of sialidase enzymes on sialoglycoconjugates. After sialic acid is transported into the cell, sialic acid lyase (NanA) then catalyzes the hydrolysis of sialic acid into pyruvate and N-acetylmannosamine. The latter is converted for use as a biosynthetic intermediate or carbohydrate source in a pathway including an e...

Malassezia nana is a recently-described lipophilic yeast that has been isolated from the ear canals and skin of cats in Japan and Europe and from Brazilian cattle with or without otitis externa. Previous reports have demonstrated that significant intra-species variability exists in the DNA sequence of the intergenic spacer 1 region (IGS1), particularly amongst M. globosa, M. restricta and M. pa...

Blastocystis hominis and Endolimax nana exist as two separate parasitic organisms; however co-infection with the two individual parasites has been well documented. Although often symptomatic in immunocompromised individuals, the pathogenicity of the organisms in immunocompetent subjects causing gastrointestinal symptoms has been debated, with studies revealing mixed results. Clinically, both B....

Streptococcus suis capsular type 2 has a capsule rich in sialic acid (NANA). Sialic acid, known to be an antiphagocytic factor for many bacterial species, inhibits the activation of the alternative complement pathway. The role of capsular NANA in virulence, resistance to phagocytosis and intracellular survival of S. suis capsular type 2 was evaluated. In general, a low concentration of NANA was...

Secondary infections with Streptococcus pneumoniae cause severe pneumonia and enhance lethality during influenza epidemics and pandemics. Structural and functional similarities with viral neuraminidase (NA) suggest that the highly prevalent pneumococcal NAs, NanA and NanB, might contribute to this lethal synergism by supporting viral replication and that dual acting NA inhibitors (NAIs) will di...

Clostridium chauvoei is the causative agent of blackleg, a wide spread serious infection of cattle and sheep with high mortality. In this study we have analyzed the sialidase activity of the NanA protein of C. chauvoei and cloned the sialidase gene nanA. Sialidase is encoded as a precursor protein of 722 amino acids with a 26 amino acid signal peptide. The mature sialidase has a calculated mole...

We examined the effect of experimental meningeal infection with a neuraminidase-producing strain of Diplococcus pneumoniae on the N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA) content of canine cerebral cortical gray matter. The Warren thiobarbituric acid assay for NANA was used. There was no significant difference between the free and bound NANA levels of the tissue from control animals and from those with m...

We encountered a patient with heavy Hymenolepis nana infection. The patient was a 44-year-old Korean man who had suffered from chronic hepatitis (type B) for 15 years. A large number of H. nana adult worms were found during colonoscopy that was performed as a part of routine health screening. The parasites were scattered throughout the colon, as well as in the terminal ileum, although the patie...