E Walther, M Richter, Z Xu, C Kramer, S von Grafenstein, J Kirchmair, U Grienke, J M Rollinger, K R Liedl, H Slevogt, A Sauerbrei, H P Saluz, W Pfister, M Schmidtke
Streptococcus (S.) pneumoniae is a major cause of secondary bacterial pneumonia during influenza epidemics. Neuraminidase (NA) is a virulence factor of both pneumococci and influenza viruses. Bacterial neuraminidases (NAs) are structurally related to viral NA and susceptible to oseltamivir, an inhibitor designed to target viral NA. This prompted us to evaluate the antipneumococcal potential of two NA inhibiting natural compounds, the diarylheptanoid katsumadain A and the isoprenylated flavone artocarpin. Chemiluminescence, fluorescence-, and hemagglutination-based enzyme assays were applied to determine the inhibitory efficiency (IC(50) value) of the tested compounds towards pneumococcal NAs...
May 2015: International Journal of Medical Microbiology: IJMM