Sialidases (SAs) hydrolyze sialyl residues from glycoconjugates of the eukaryotic cell surface and are virulence factors expressed by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and parasites. The catalytic domains of SAs are often flanked with carbohydrate‐binding module(s) previously shown to bind sialosides and to enhance enzymatic catalytic efficiency. Herein, non‐hydrolyzable multivalent thiosialosides were designed as probes and inhibitors of V. cholerae, T. cruzi, and S. pneumoniae (NanA) sialidases. NanA was truncated from the catalytic and lectinic domains (NanA‐L and NanA‐C) to probe their respective roles upon interacting with sialylated surfaces and the synthetically designed di‐ and polymeric thiosialosides. The NanA‐L domain was shown to fully drive NanA binding, improving affinity for the thiosialylated surface and compounds by more than two orders of magnitude. Importantly, each thiosialoside grafted onto the polymer was also shown to reduce NanA and NanA‐C catalytic activity with efficiency that was 3000‐fold higher than that of the monovalent thiosialoside reference. These results extend the concept of multivalency for designing potent bacterial and parasitic sialidase inhibitors.

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The fimbrial lectin FimH from uro- and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli binds with nanomolar affinity to oligomannose glycans exposing Manα1,3Man dimannosides at their non-reducing end, but only with micromolar affinities to Manα1,2Man dimannosides. These two dimannoses play a significantly distinct role in infection by E. coli. Manα1,2Man has been described early on as shielding the (Manα1,3Man) glycan that is more relevant to strong bacterial adhesion and invasion. We quantified the binding of the two dimannoses (Manα1,2Man and Manα1,3Man to FimH using ELLSA and isothermal microcalorimetry and calculated probabilities of binding modes using molecular dynamics simulations. Our experimentally and computationally determined binding energies confirm a higher affinity of FimH towards the dimannose Manα1,3Man. Manα1,2Man displays a much lower binding enthalpy combined with a high entropic gain. Most remarkably, our molecular dynamics simulations indicate that Manα1,2Man cannot easily take its major conformer from water into the FimH binding site and that FimH is interacting with two very different conformers of Manα1,2Man that occupy 42% and 28% respectively of conformational space. The finding that Manα1,2Man binding to FimH is unstable agrees with the earlier suggestion that E. coli may use the Manα1,2Man epitope for transient tethering along cell surfaces in order to enhance dispersion of the infection.