ArticleThe Journal of experimental medicine2009
The surface-anchored NanA protein promotes pneumococcal brain endothelial cell invasion.
Article in The Journal of experimental medicine, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 108 papers.
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Who cites it
108 citing papers in PubMed, 179 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Decoding sialidase: physiological roles, pathological pathways, and clinical opportunities.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Neuraminidase A controls pneumococcal recognition and fate: deficiency enhances immune sensing and intracellular survival, while treatment promotes phagocytic clearance.Immunotherapy advances · 2026Article
- Identification ofJournal of proteome research · 2025Article
- Stem cell-derived brain-like endothelial cells to interrogateVirulence · 2025Article
- The metabolic, microbial and immunological demands of pneumococcal colonisation.PLoS pathogens · 2025Review
- Label-free microscopy enables high-throughput identification of genes controlling biofilm development.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Group B Streptococci lyse endothelial cells to infect the brain in a zebrafish meningitis model.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Blackleg: A deadly disease with a hidden cause.Open veterinary journal · 2025Review
- Breaking the fortress: a mechanistic review of meningitis-causing bacteria breaching tactics in blood brain barrier.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2025Review
- Understanding the mechanisms ofTissue barriers · 2025Review
- Review
- Impedimetric Characterization of NanA Structural Domains Activity on Sialoside-Containing Interfaces.Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · 2024Article
- Klebsiella pneumoniae peptide hijacks a Streptococcus pneumoniae permease to subvert pneumococcal growth and colonization.Communications biology · 2024Article
- A pleiotropic role of sialidase in the pathogenicity ofInfection and immunity · 2024Article
- Bacterial meningitis in Africa.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Review
- Role ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Review
- Co-infection of the respiratory epithelium, scene of complex functional interactions between viral, bacterial, and human neuraminidases.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Review
- Article
48 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In humans, Streptococcus pneumoniae (SPN) is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis, a disease with high attributable mortality and frequent permanent neurological sequelae. The molecular mechanisms underlying the central nervous system tropism of SPN are incompletely understood, but include a primary interaction of the pathogen with the blood-brain barrier (BBB) endothelium. All SPN strains possess a gene encoding the surface-anchored sialidase (neuraminidase) NanA, which cleaves sialic acid on host cells and proteins. Here, we use an isogenic SPN NanA-deficient mutant and heterologous expression of the protein to show that NanA is both necessary and sufficient to promote SPN adherence to and invasion of human brain microvascular endothelial cells (hBMECs). NanA-mediated hBMEC invasion depends only partially on sialidase activity, whereas the N-terminal lectinlike domain of the protein plays a critical role. NanA promotes SPN-BBB interaction in a murine infection model, identifying the protein as proximal mediator of CNS entry by the pathogen.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.