Sialic Acid
Sialic acid may be a generic term for a family of derivatives of neuraminic acid, an acidic sugar with a nine-carbon backbone. It’s also the name for the foremost common member of this group, N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac or NANA).
Sialic acids are found cosmopolitan in animal
tissues and to a lesser extent in other organisms, starting from fungi to yeasts and bacteria, mostly in glycoproteins and
gangliosides (they occur at the top of sugar chains connected to the surfaces of
cells and soluble proteins). That’s because it seems to possess appeared late in evolution.[citation needed] However, it's been observed in Drosophila embryos and other insects and within the capsular polysaccharides of certain strains of bacteria. Generally, plants don't contain or display sialic acids. In humans the
brain has the very best
sialic acid concentration, where these acids play a crucial role in neural transmission and ganglioside structure in synaptogenesis. Quite 50 sorts of
sialic acid are known, all of which may be obtained from a molecule of neuraminic acid by substituting its amino of 1 of its hydroxil groups. Generally, the amino bears either an acetyl or a glycolyl group, but other modifications are described. These modifications alongside linkages have shown to be tissue specific and developmentally regulated expressions, so a number of them are only found on certain sorts of glycoconjugates in specific cells. The hydroxyl substituents may vary considerably; acetyl, lactyl, methyl, sulfate, and phosphate groups are found.
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