Neuraminidase superfamily compendium

Abstract

The neuraminidase activity was described for the first time in 1942 by the virologist George Hirst in the influenza virus. Indeed, neuraminidase types define flu subtypes nowadays and are of major relevance in the development of modern flu vaccines. Although neuraminidases have been known for a long time, they continue to be the focus of much current research because of their potential for future drug development and their close relationship with many essential biological processes. As other carbohydrate-active enzymes, they are classified into families according to sequence similarity in the Carbohydrate-active enzymes database (CAZy). However, it is necessary to resort to further information sources to learn about many relevant aspects of each neuraminidase. Taking advantage of the large amount of information that has been collected in the literature in recent years, this project is a compendium of all neuraminidases from which a 3D structure is available and proposes a new classification based not only on structure but also function, location in Nature and organisms, as well as pathogenesis of each neuraminidase