ArticleThe Journal of biological chemistry2013
Degradation, foraging, and depletion of mucus sialoglycans by the vagina-adapted Actinobacterium Gardnerella vaginalis.
Article in The Journal of biological chemistry, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 124 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
124 citing papers in PubMed, 178 citations in OpenAlex.
- The cervicovaginal microbiome: an emerging determinant of HPV infection and disease.Journal of virology · 2026Review
- Vaginal microbiomes and their pertinent social context: a microbial ecological review proffering AMR-STI acquisition and emergence.Biology of sex differences · 2026Review
- Prevalence of vaginal microecological disorder and its association with HPV infections in pregnant women attending prenatal examinations.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Bacteriophage-Based Therapeutics for Bacterial Sexually Transmitted Infections: From Biological Barriers to Translational Strategies.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The VaginalMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Prevalence and Co-occurrence of Candida albicans and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Lactobacillus-Deficient HIV-Negative Adolescent Girls and Young women.Mycopathologia · 2026Article
- Review
- Strain-level heterogeneity in Gardnerella urinary tract persistence and pathogenesis in an in vivo model is consistent with comparative phylogenomic analyses.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Resource landscape shapes the composition and stability of the human vaginal microbiota.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Vaginal bacteria-derived extracellular vesicles diffuse through human cervicovaginal mucus to enable microbe-host signaling.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Microbiological quality control for intravaginal devices for the treatment of infectious diseases and bacterial vaginosis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Neuraminidase-Associated Vaginal Dysbiosis Correlates with HPV Infection Across Oncogenic Risk Subtypes.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Article
- What is the impact of the virome and mycobiome on female reproductive tract health? A systematic scoping review.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Clinical epidemiology and associations between HPV infection and vaginal infections in Jinan, China: a cross-sectional analysis.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Genetic transformation ofInfection and immunity · 2025Article
- Increased vaginalmSystems · 2025Article
- Sialidases as Potential Therapeutic Targets for Treatment of a Number of Human Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Degradation of Resistant α-1,4-glucan by Vaginal Gardnerella Species is Associated with Bacterial Vaginosis.Current microbiology · 2025Article
- Vaginal pharmacomicrobiomics modulates risk of persistent and recurrent bacterial vaginosis.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Review
64 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a polymicrobial imbalance of the vaginal microbiota associated with reproductive infections, preterm birth, and other adverse health outcomes. Sialidase activity in vaginal fluids is diagnostic of BV and sialic acid-rich components of mucus have protective and immunological roles. However, whereas mucus degradation is believed to be important in the etiology and complications associated with BV, the role(s) of sialidases and the participation of individual bacterial species in the degradation of mucus barriers in BV have not been investigated. Here we demonstrate that the BV-associated bacterium Gardnerella vaginalis uses sialidase to break down and deplete sialic acid-containing mucus components in the vagina. Biochemical evidence using purified sialoglycan substrates supports a model in which 1) G. vaginalis extracellular sialidase hydrolyzes mucosal sialoglycans, 2) liberated sialic acid (N-acetylneuraminic acid) is transported into the bacterium, a process inhibited by excess N-glycolylneuraminic acid, and 3) sialic acid catabolism is initiated by an intracellular aldolase/lyase mechanism. G. vaginalis engaged in sialoglycan foraging in vitro, in the presence of human vaginal mucus, and in vivo, in a murine vaginal model, in each case leading to depletion of sialic acids. Comparison of sialic acid levels in human vaginal specimens also demonstrated significant depletion of mucus sialic acids in women with BV compared with women with a "normal" lactobacilli-dominated microbiota. Taken together, these studies show that G. vaginalis utilizes sialidase to support the degradation, foraging, and depletion of protective host mucus barriers, and that this process of mucus barrier degradation and depletion also occurs in the clinical setting of BV.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.