Sialic acid  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View
original article  Jump to: navigation, search  Sialic acid is a
generic term for the N- or O-substituted derivatives of
neuraminic acid, a monosaccharide with a nine-carbon
backbone.[1] It is also the name for the most common member of
this group, N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac or NANA). Sialic
acids are found widely distributed in animal tissues and to a
lesser extent in other organisms, ranging from plants and fungi
to yeasts and bacteria, mostly in glycoproteins and gangliosides
(they occur at the end of sugar chains connected to the surfaces
of cells and soluble proteins).[2] That is because it seems to
have appeared late in evolution. However, it has been observed
in Drosophila embryos and other insects and in the capsular
polysaccharides of certain strains of bacteria.[3] In humans the
brain has the highest sialic acid concentration where they have
an important role in neural transmission and ganglioside
structure in synaptogenesis.[2] In genera