Neuraminidase: Its Substrate and Mode of Action

Exploration of the Sialic Acid World

“…23 Gottschalk's proposal also included for terminal "N-acetylneuraminic acid" an enzymatic release from mucoproteins via a glycosidase instead of an amidase. 97,221 See also ref. 190.…”

“…175 A mucoprotein of hen egg white (ovomucin) inhibited the reversible viruserythrocyte binding, a property that was destroyed when the ovomucin was first incubated with influenza virus. 97,174 Thus, the main property of sialic acid was identified in these early days, namely, to act in biological recognition as a receptor, but in due respect to its structure, a ligand. Virologists even today consider sialic acids as receptors that accept viruses.…”

Influenza: achievements and challenges An historical snapshot

“…Consequently, one of the initial acts of the newly established World Health Organization was to establish an international surveillance programme to study the antigenic changes in the viruses and to provide updated strains for vaccine production 12 ; this has evolved as the WHO Global Influenza Programme 13 Under the Microscope and characterised the enzymic activity, neuraminidase (NA), on the surface of the virus 15 . Some 3 decades later, Australian scientists succeeded in crystallising neuraminidase from an influenza virus, determining its structure by x-ray crystallography 16 and then designing 17 trialling and registering the first of a new class of drugs, the NA inhibitors, which are playing a prominent role in the pandemic preparedness plans of governments.…”