Effect of pneumococcal neuraminidase on canine cerebral cortex in experimental meningitis.

We examined the effect of experimental meningeal infection with a neuraminidase-producing strain of Diplococcus pneumoniae on the N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA) content of canine cerebral cortical gray matter. The Warren thiobarbituric acid assay for NANA was used. There was no significant difference between the free and bound NANA levels of the tissue from control animals and from those with meningitis. This finding suggests that the neurological impairment so frequent in clinical pneumococcal meningitis is not a result of the activity of this bacterial enzyme upon cortical glycolipids.