Pneumococci

Activity of Choline Derivatives on Orotvth of a Strain of Pneumococcus (Type III) (10) (Activity is recorded in % of turbidity obtained with 5 ig. choline chloride/ml. 

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Specific bacteriostatic activity against Escherichia coli (681, 896, 899), Staphylococcus aureus (681, 896), Cocci (900), Shigella dysenteriae (681), Salmonella ryphi (681), Proteus vulgaris (681), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (681), Streptococcus (889, 901, 902) and Pneumococcus (901-904). 

The bacterium was Strepto coccus pneumoniae also called Pneumococcus... 

Mice are utilized for testing antiseptics for appHcation to cuts, wounds, and incisions (339). The test bacteria, type 1 pneumococcus and hemolytic streptococcus, ate appHed to the taHs of anaesthetized mice. The tip of the taH is then dipped into the antiseptic for 2 min, after which one-half inch of the taH is removed and inserted into the peritoneal cavity and the incision is closed. If after 10 days the animals survive, the product is considered satisfactory for use as a skin antiseptic. The blood of dead animals is sampled and streaked on blood agar for confirmation of infection from the test bacteria as the cause of death. Since lack of toxicity is another requirement of a product to be appHed to wounds, this test has been combined with a toxicity test (340). 

Hydroxymethyl-6-methyluracil (1043) was prepared many years ago from 6-methyl-uracil and formaldehyde, or in other ways. Since 1956 it has received much attention in the USSR under the (transliterated) name pentoxyl or pentoxil. It is used in several anaemic and disease conditions. For example, a mixture of folic acid and pentoxyl quickly reduces the anaemia resulting from lead poisoning pentoxyl stimulates the supply of serum protein after massive blood loss it stimulates wound healing it stimulates the immune response in typhus infection and it potentiates the action of sulfonamides in pneumococcus infections (70MI21300). 

The bacterium was Streptococcus pneumoniae, also called Pneumococcus. 

In 1967, Heidelberger, Stacey et al. reported the purification, some structural features, and the chemical modification of the capsular polysaccharide from Pneumococcus Type I. Difficulties of direct hydrolysis of the polysaccharide were overcome and it was possible to identify some of the fragments in the hy-drolyzate. At least six products resulted from nitrous acid deamination. Two were disaccharides, which were identified, and sequences of linked sugar units were proposed. As modification of the polysaccharide decreased the amounts of antibody precipitated by anti-pneumococcal Type I sera, the importance of the unmodified structural features in contributing to the specificity of the polysaccharide was indicated. 

By 1945, Stacey speculated about the possibility of a structural relationship between Pneumococcus capsular polysaccharides and those produced by other organisms. With Miss Schliichterer, he had examined the capsular polysaccharide of Rhizobium radicicolum. This polysaccharide gave a precipitin reaction in high dilution, not only with Type III Pneumococcus antiserum, but also mixed with antisera from other Pneumococcus types. The chemical evidence indicated that the polysaccharide resembled the specific polysaccharides of Types I and II Pneumococcus. A decade later, the acidic capsular polysaccharide from Azoto-bacter chroococcum, a soil organism, was studied. It, too, produced serological cross-reactions with certain pneumococcal specific antisera. Although the molecular structure of the polysaccharide was not established, adequate evidence was accumulated to show a structural relationship to Type III Pneumococcus-specific polysaccharide. This was sufficiently close to account for the Type III serological cross-relationship. 

In 1947, L-rhamnose was first recognized by Stacey as a constituent of Pneumococcus Type II specific polysaccharide. This finding was confirmed, in 1952, by Kabat et al. and in 1955 again by Stacey when 2,4- and 2,5-di-O-methyl-L-rhamnose were synthesized and the former was shown to be identical with a di-O-methylrhamnose, obtained by hydrolysis of the methylated polysaccharide. This result indicated a pyranose ring structure for the rhamnose units in the polysaccharide. Announcement of the identification of D-arabinofuranose as a constituent of a polysaccharide from M. tuberculosis aroused considerable interest. The L-enantiomer had been found extensively in polysaccharides, but reports of the natural occurrence of D-arabinose had been comparatively rare. To have available reference compounds for comparison with degradation products of polysaccharides, syntheses of derivatives (particularly methyl ethers) of both d- and L-arabinose were reported in 1947. 

L-Fucosamine was found as a constituent of Pneumococcus Type V capsular polysaccharide and as a constituent of the mucopolysaccharides (glycosamino-glycans) of certain enteric bacteria A new synthesis was devised to make the amino sugar more available. 

Sulfonamide Drugs and Pneumococcus Capsular Polysaccharides, M. Stacey and E. Schliichterer, Nature. 143 (1939)724. 

Some Physical Properties of the Specific Polysaccharides from the Types I, II and III Pneumococcus," B. R. Record and M. Stacey,/. Chem. Soc., (1948) 1561-1567. 

Immunopolysaccharides. Part IV. Structural Studies on the Type II Pneumococcus Specific Polysaccharide, K. Butler and M. Stacey, J. Chem. Soc., (1955) 1537-1541. 

Structure of Pneumococcus Capsular Polysaccharides, S. A. Barker and M. Stacey, Biochem. /., 82... 

Pneumococcus, polysaccharides from, 6-7 Poly(a-L-guluronic acid), 353, 355-356,415 Poly(P-D-mannuronic acid), 353-354,414 Polysaccharides, 311 -439 amino sugar derivatives, 166 chemical repeating units, 321, 324-325... 

Bacterial meningitis is the most common cause of CNS infections. An epidemiologic review of bacterial meningitis in 1995 revealed that Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) was the most common pathogen (47%), followed by Neisseria... 

Avery, O. T., MacLeod, C. M. and McCarty, M. (1944), Studies on the chemical nature of the substance inducing transformation of Pneumococcal types induction of transformation by a deoxyribonucleic acid fraction isolated from Pneumococcus IIP, Journal of Experimental Medicine, 79, 137-157. 

Type IV Pneumococcus Specific Polysaccharide.—This capsular material110 ([ck]d + 33°, water) has been hydrolyzed and shown to contain units of D-glucose and N-acetyl-hexosamine. Its structure has not yet been studied. 

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