Background: Diabetic nephropathy is a major microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus and the most common cause of end stage renal disease worldwide. It has been proposed that inflammatory process seems to play an important role in the development of diabetes and its late complications. Serum sialic acid, an acute phase reactant and acute phase reactants are considered as the indicators o...

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...

We recently showed that sialic acid content of LDL was not a marker of early cardiovascular disease (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 1995;15:334-339). Here, we investigated this parameter in patients with advanced coronary artery disease (CAD). We first examined 100 patients having undergone coronary angiography. The distribution of LDL sialic acid values was very similar in subjects with no cor...

By sequence analysis of available group B streptococcus (GBS) genomes, we discovered a conserved putative operon involved in the catabolism of sialic acid, containing a tripartite transporter formed by two integral membrane components and a sugar-binding unit, named SAL0039. Expression analysis in the presence of different substrates revealed that SAL0039 was specifically upregulated by the pre...

The role of membrane sialic acid in erythrocyte survival is unclear, although there is evidence for a reduction in sialic acid and surface charge in older erythrocytes. We reduced the surface charge of human, rat, and rabbit erythrocytes by removing sialic acid with neuraminidase. Reduction in sialic acid correlated with decreases in electrophoretic mobility and loss of PAS staining of membrane...

AIM The objective of this study is to correlate microalbumin and sialic acid levels with anthropometric variables in type 2 diabetic patients with and without nephropathy. METHODS This study was a case control study and included 108 Trinidadian subjects (aged 15-60 years) of which 30 were healthy individuals, 38 had type 2 diabetes, and 40 were of type 2 diabetic patients with nephropathy. Bl...

Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) is a severe eye infection caused mainly by adenovirus type 8 (Ad8), Ad19, and Ad37. We have shown that the EKC-causing adenoviruses use sialic acid as a cellular receptor on A549 cells instead of the coxsackie-adenovirus receptor, which is used by most adenoviruses. Recently, Wu et al. (Virology 279:78-89, 2001) proposed that Ad37 uses a 50-kDa protein as a r...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that an increased plasma concentration of sialic acid, a marker of the acute-phase response, is related to the presence of diabetic micro- and macrovascular complications in type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We investigated the relationship between plasma sialic acid concentration and nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, and coronary heart disease ...

A new ganglioside, containing an alkali-labile linkage, was extracted from mouse brain and purified. It represents 3.6% of total lipid-bound sialic acid in the tissue and was obtained in pure form with a yield of about 35%. It contains sphingosine, glucose, galactose, N-acetylgalactosamine and sialic acid in the molar ratio 1:1:2:1:4 and, upon exhaustive sialidase treatment gives the monosialog...

ASPERGILLUS: fumigatus is a ubiquitous soil fungus that causes invasive lung disease in the immunocompromised host. The structure of the conidial wall has not been well characterized although it is thought that adhesins present on the surface are involved in attachment of the conidia to host lung cells and proteins, which is a prerequisite for the establishment of infection. Negatively charged ...