To further evaluate the role of sialic acid in the dysfibrinogenemia associated with liver disease, we studied the effect of removal of excess sialic acid residues from the fibrinogen of five patients with liver disease on the thrombin time and fibrin monomer aggregation. Patient fibrinogens containing 1.4-3.4 residues of sialic acid per molecule in excess of normal controls, with thrombin time...

It has been known for over a decade that sialidase (neuraminidase) treatment could substantially enhance the capacity of resting B cells to stimulate the proliferation of allogeneic and antigen specific, syngeneic T cells. Thus, cell-surface sialic acid was implicated as a potential modulator of immune cell interaction. However, little progress has been made in either identifying explicit roles...

Sialic acid is a major determinant of carbohydrate-receptor interactions in many systems pertinent to human health and disease. N-Acetylmannosamine (ManNAc) is the first committed intermediate in the sialic acid biosynthetic pathway; thus, the mechanisms that control intracellular ManNAc levels are important regulators of sialic acid production. UDP-GlcNAc 2-epimerase and GlcNAc 2-epimerase are...

Nitric oxide and sialic acid variables are indicators of the acute phase response. This study was planned to investigate the relationship between the level of serum nitric oxide and sialic acid in type 2 diabetes with and without nephropathy. Fasting venous blood samples were taken from 90 subjects of which 30 were of type 2 diabetic patients with nephropathy (group I), 30 type 2 diabetes witho...

Low density lipoprotein (LDL) with low sialic acid content has been reported to cause intracellular cholesterol accumulation, and therefore desialylation has been proposed to be an atherogenic modification of LDL. However, it is not known whether hypolipidemic treatment has any effect on LDL sialylation. Accordingly, we investigated the sialic acid/apolipoprotein (apo) B ratio of total LDL and ...

BACKGROUND Influenza viruses bind and infect respiratory epithelial cells through sialic acid on cell surface. Differential preference to sialic acid types contributes to host- and tissue-tropism of avian and seasonal influenza viruses. Although the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 can infect and cause severe diseases in humans, it is not efficient in infecting human upper respirato...

Substrate-binding protein-dependent secondary transporters are widespread in prokaryotes and are represented most frequently by members of the tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporter family. Here, we report the membrane reconstitution of a TRAP transporter, the sialic acid-specific SiaPQM system from Haemophilus influenzae, and elucidate its mechanism of energy coupling. Uptak...

Early postnatal development encounters milk as a key environmental variable and yet the sole nutrient source. One evolutionary conserved constituent of milk is sialic acid, which is generally displayed on glycoconjugates and free glycans. During early postnatal development, high sialic acid need was proposed to be unmet by the endogenous sialic acid synthetic capacity. Hence, milk sialic acid w...

Background: Even though alcoholic liver disease is common disease in India, there are only limited reports about insulin resistance and no reports about lipid bound sialic acid in these cases. The present study was designed to evaluate insulin resistance and lipid bound sialic acid levels in patients with alcoholic liver disease Materials and methods: 50 alcohol liver disease cases groups [Fatt...

This study was performed to determine whether alloxan treatment of rats alters levels of the terminal carbohydrate residues L-fucose and sialic acid of serum glycoproteins. Results indicate that in the uncompensated diabetic animal a chronic depression of serum sialic acid level occurs with no apparent alteration in the level of L-fucose. The depression in sialic acid level may be attributed in...