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The Role of Sialic Acid in the Formation of Protective Conformational Bacterial Polysaccharide Epitopes

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Anticarbohydrate Antibodies

Abstract

The capsular polysaccharides of human pathogenic bacteria are strong virulence factors and their use as human vaccines are well established (Jennings 1983). Some bacteria have acquired the ability to incorporate sialic acid into their capsules which further enables them to evade the human immune system. For example, the presence of sialic acid enhances the ability of bacteria to mimic human sialylated antigens, which are ubiquitous on normal human cells, giving them the ability to downregulate the human immune system. This deficiency can be overcome however, by using aggressive immunization schedules, by conjugation of the polysaccharide before immunization, or by further modification of the polysaccharide prior to conjugation, but in many cases as detailed in this review, the protective immune response is then mediated through unique length-dependent epitopes (Jennings et al. 1984). This is because the immune system preferentially selects these extended epitopes to produce high affinity protective antibodies, thus avoiding the possible and problematic induction of auto-antibodies against shorter self antigens. This phenomenon is extensively exhibited by the capsular polysaccharides of group B Neisseria meningitidis and group B Streptococcus and the definition of their extended respective protective epitopes is the subject of this review.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge J-R Brisson for the preparation of figures and Robert Pon for helpful critical discussions and preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Institute for Biological Sciences, National Research Council of Canada, 100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0R6

    Harold J. Jennings

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Correspondence to Harold J. Jennings .

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  1. , Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Muthgasse 18, Wien, 1190, Austria

    Paul Kosma

  2. , Zentrum für Medizin und Biowissenschafte, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Parkallee 22, Borstel, 23845, Germany

    Sven Müller-Loennies

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Jennings, H.J. (2012). The Role of Sialic Acid in the Formation of Protective Conformational Bacterial Polysaccharide Epitopes. In: Kosma, P., Müller-Loennies, S. (eds) Anticarbohydrate Antibodies. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0870-3_3

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