Taxonomic group: bacteria / Proteobacteria
(Phylum: Proteobacteria)
Host organism: Homo sapiens
Associated disease: bacteremia [ICD11:
MA15.0 
];
pneumonia [ICD11:
CA40 ];
meningitis [ICD11:
1D01 ];
infection due to Neisseria meningitidis [ICD11:
XN1DV ]
NCBI PubMed ID: 28501716Publication DOI: 10.1016/j.carres.2017.05.004Journal NLM ID: 0043535Publisher: Elsevier
Correspondence: mkuttel
cs.uct.ac.za
Institutions: Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa
The capsular polysaccharide is the main virulence factor in meningococcus. The capsular polysaccharides for meningococcal serogroups Y and W are almost identical polymers of hexose-sialic acid, suggesting the possibility of cross-protection between group Y and W vaccines. However, early studies indicated that they elicit different levels of cross-protection. Here we explore the conformations of the meningococcal Y and W polysaccharides with molecular dynamics simulations of three repeating unit oligosaccharide strands. We find differences in Y and W antigen conformation: the Y polysaccharide has a single dominant conformation, whereas W exhibits a family of conformations including the Y conformation. This result is supported by our NMR NOESY analysis, which indicates key close contacts for W that are not present in Y. These conformational differences provide an explanation for the different levels of cross-protection measured for the Y and W monovalent vaccines and the high group W responses observed in HibMenCY-TT vaccinees.
molecular modelling, Meningococcus, Neisseria meningitidis, capsular polysaccharide, carbohydrate antigens, cross-protection, molecular dynamics simulation
Structure type: homopolymer
Location inside paper: p.40
Trivial name: colominic acid sodium salt, colominic acid, type B polysaccharide, polysialic acid, PSA, oligosaccharide repeating unit, α-2,8-linked polysialic acid
Compound class: CPS, O-polysaccharide, K-antigen, O-antigen
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_136794,IEDB_141115,IEDB_142352,IEDB_146100,IEDB_149174,IEDB_150072,IEDB_150937,IEDB_153199,IEDB_226810,IEDB_558870,IEDB_983929,SB_170,SB_171,SB_172,SB_35,SB_42,SB_84
Methods: 13C NMR, 1H NMR, NMR-2D, conformation analysis, MD simulations, de-O-acetylation
3D data: molecular modeling
Related record ID(s): 11926, 12152, 12154, 12155, 12156
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 491Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G30588ZL, GlycomeDB:
677
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure:
Found 
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