Objective: Meningococcal meningitis is a public health burden. Immunization strategies have reduced global incidence of the disease. Glycoconjugate vaccines are the most effective type of vaccine to combat most causes of meningococcal meningitis. These vaccines contain capsular polysaccharide fragments from disease-causing serogroups of Neisseria meningitidis that are chemically attached to a carrier protein. The enzymes responsible for capsular polysaccharide synthesis can serve as tools to make these critical vaccine components. One such enzyme is the N. meningitidis serogroup W capsule polymerase. This enzyme is responsible for creating the galactose-sialic acid containing capsular polysaccharide of this serogroup. Our aim in this study was to determine the binding affinities of nucleotide sugar donors CMP-sialic acid and UDP-galactose using a coupled transferase assay to inform future work to modulate polysaccharide synthesis by this enzyme.
Results: We determined a K of 66.8 µM for CMP-sialic acid and a K for UDP-galactose of 3.9 µM. These values are lower than reported values for other retaining galactosyltransferases and inverting sialyltransferases respectively. There were difficulties obtaining reliable data for galactosyltransferase activity. An alternate strategy is needed to assess kinetic parameters of the separate transferase activities for this enzyme.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13104-018-3596-y | DOI Listing |
J Am Chem Soc
January 2025
Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Einsteinweg 55, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands.
is a Gram-positive bacterium that is responsible for severe nosocomial infections. The rise of multidrug-resistant strains, which can pose significant health threats, prompts the development of new treatment interventions, and much attention has been directed at the development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination strategies. Capsular polysaccharides (CPs) are key protective elements of the cell wall and have been proposed as promising candidate antigens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbohydr Polym
March 2025
Beijing Minhai Biotechnology Co. Ltd, Beijing 102600, China. Electronic address:
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major pathogen of bacterial pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis, and otitis media. The pathogenicity of this bacterium is largely attributed to its polysaccharide capsule, a protective layer around bacterial cell that enables bacteria to resist against host defense. Capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) of S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbohydr Res
December 2024
School of Pharmacy and Medical Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Queensland, 4222, Australia; Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Queensland, 4222, Australia. Electronic address:
Moraxella lincolnii is a Gram-negative bacterium that resides in the upper respiratory tract (URT) of humans and may have a role as a member of a protective microbial community. Structural characterisation studies of its outer membrane glycan structures are very limited. We report here the isolation and structural characterisation (NMR, GLC-MS) of a capsular polysaccharide (CPS) and an oligosaccharide (OS) (lipooligosaccharide (LOS)-derived) isolated from strain CCUG 52988.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Pharmacol
December 2024
Guangzhou ZhiYi Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Guangzhou, China.
() is a Gram-negative, obligate anaerobic, commensal bacterium residing in the human gut and holds therapeutic potential for ulcerative colitis (UC). Previous studies have indicated that capsular polysaccharide A (PSA) of is a crucial component for its effectiveness, possessing various biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and immune-modulating effects. We previously isolated and characterized the strain ZY-312 from the feces of a healthy breastfed infant, and extracted its PSA, named TP2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroorganisms
December 2024
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, 50 Ngam Wong Wan, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand.
Vibriosis caused by is a major problem in aquatic animals, particularly brown marble groupers (). biotype I has recently been isolated and classified into subgroups SUKU_G1, SUKU_G2, and SUKU_G3 according to the different types of virulence genes. In a previous study, we have shown that biotype I strains were classified into three subgroups according to the different types of virulence genes, which exhibited different phenotypes in terms of growth rate and virulence.
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