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. 2009 May 15;199(10):1497-505.
doi: 10.1086/598483.

Sialic acid: a preventable signal for pneumococcal biofilm formation, colonization, and invasion of the host

Claudia Trappetti  1 , Aras Kadioglu, Melissa Carter, Jasvinder Hayre, Francesco Iannelli, Gianni Pozzi, Peter W Andrew, Marco R Oggioni
Affiliations

Sialic acid: a preventable signal for pneumococcal biofilm formation, colonization, and invasion of the host

Claudia Trappetti et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

The correlation between carbohydrate availability, pneumococcal biofilm formation, nasopharyngeal colonization, and invasion of the host has been investigated. Of a series of sugars, only sialic acid (i.e., N-acetylneuraminic acid) enhanced pneumococcal biofilm formation in vitro, at concentrations similar to those of free sialic acid in human saliva. In a murine model of pneumococcal carriage, intranasal inoculation of sialic acid significantly increased pneumococcal counts in the nasopharynx and instigated translocation of pneumococci to the lungs. Competition of both sialic acid-dependent phenotypes was found to be successful when evaluated using the neuraminidase inhibitors DANA (i.e., 2,3-didehydro-2-deoxy-N-acetylneuraminic acid), zanamivir, and oseltamivir. The association between levels of free sialic acid on mucosae, pneumococcal colonization, and development of invasive disease shows how a host-derived molecule can influence a colonizing microbe and also highlights a molecular mechanism that explains the epidemiologic correlation between respiratory infections due to neuraminidase-bearing viruses and bacterial pneumonia. The data provide a new paradigm for the role of a host compound in infectious diseases and point to new treatment strategies.

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