Diplococcus pneumonia, polysaccharides

The polysaccharides of pneumococcus (Diplococcus pneumoniae) have been the subjects of numerous investigations in the past twenty years. It is possible within the limits of this review to consider only a few of the more important results briefly. 

The pneumococci all belong to different types of the same species, namely, Streptococcus pneumoniae. This was earlier called Diplococcus pneumoniae, but has been renamed.5 6 7 There are some 80 different types of pneumococcus, and two systems of nomenclature, the Danish, used in Europe, and Eddy s, used in the United States.8 Tables correlating the Danish and American designations have been published.8 The Danish system, with Arabic numerals and common abbreviations, such as Phi for Type 1 and SI for its type-specific, capsular polysaccharide, will be used in this article. 

Immunoadsorbents can be made with whole antigens or haptens. For example, Haber42 reported the preparation of a Diplococcus pneumoniae Type III immunoadsorbent. The capsular polysaccharide (S III) was p-nitrobenzylated to a low degree of substitution by the method of Avery and Goebel.43 The resultant ether was re-... 

A new method for iV-deacetylation of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-sugars has appeared. A mixture of trifluoroacetic anhydride-trifluoroacetic acid was used to transacylate the A-acetylamido compound and trifluoroacetylate all free hydroxy-groups treatment with either methanolic ammonia or ethanolic sodium borohydride removed all the trifluoroacetyl groups. When applied to capsular polysaccharides of Diplococcus pneumoniae minimal degradation was observed. ... 

The capsular polysaccharide of Diplococcus pneumoniae has been shown to possess a linear pentasaccharide repeating unit containing residues of d-glucopyranosyluronic acid, o-galactofuranose, and L-rhamnopyranose (1 2 2). ° The presence of 2,3-linked D-galactofuranosyl residues in the polysaccharide of Klebsiella K41 has been confirmed by the characterization of 5,6-di-O-methyl-D-galactofuranose as a product in the methylation of the polysaccharide, and of the presence of L-arabinose in the Smith degradation... 

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