No abstract

Protein glycosylation is an important post-translational modification associated, among others, with diseases and the efficacy of biopharmaceuticals. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-fight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) can be performed to study glycosylation in a high-throughput manner, but is hampered by the instability and ionization bias experienced by sialylated glycan species. Stabilization and neutralization of these sialic acids can be achieved by permethylation or by specific carboxyl group derivatization with the possibility of discrimination between α2,3- and α2,6-linked sialic acids. However, these methods typically require relatively pure glycan samples, show sensitivity to side reactions, and need harsh conditions or long reaction times. We established a rapid, robust and linkage-specific high-throughput method for sialic acid stabilization and MALDI-TOF-MS analysis, to allow direct modification of impure glycan-containing mixtures such as PNGase F-released human plasma N-glycome. Using a combination of carboxylic acid activators in ethanol achieved near-complete ethyl esterification of α2,6-linked sialic acids and lactonization of α2,3-linked variants, in short time using mild conditions. Glycans were recovered by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography solid phase extraction and analyzed by MALDI-TOF-MS in reflectron positive mode with 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid as the matrix substance. Analysis of the human plasma N-glycome allowed high-throughput detection and relative quantitation of more than 100 distinct N-glycan compositions with varying sialic acid linkages.

Glycosylation is the most abundant and complex protein modification, and can have a profound structural and functional effect on the conjugate. The oligosaccharide fraction is recognized to be involved in multiple biological processes, and to affect proteins physical properties, and has consequentially been labeled a critical quality attribute of biopharmaceuticals. Additionally, due to recent advances in analytical methods and analysis software, glycosylation is targeted in the search for disease biomarkers for early diagnosis and patient stratification. Biofluids such as saliva, serum or plasma are of great use in this regard, as they are easily accessible and can provide relevant glycosylation information. Thus, as the assessment of protein glycosylation is becoming a major element in clinical and biopharmaceutical research, this review aims to convey the current state of knowledge on the N-glycosylation of the major plasma glycoproteins alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, alpha-1-antitrypsin, alpha-1B-glycoprotein, alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein, alpha-2-macroglobulin, antithrombin-III, apolipoprotein B-100, apolipoprotein D, apolipoprotein F, beta-2-glycoprotein 1, ceruloplasmin, fibrinogen, immunoglobulin (Ig) A, IgG, IgM, haptoglobin, hemopexin, histidine-rich glycoprotein, kininogen-1, serotransferrin, vitronectin, and zinc-alpha-2-glycoprotein. In addition, the less abundant immunoglobulins D and E are included because of their major relevance in immunology and biopharmaceutical research. Where available, the glycosylation is described in a site-specific manner. In the discussion, we put the glycosylation of individual proteins into perspective and speculate how the individual proteins may contribute to a total plasma N-glycosylation profile determined at the released glycan level.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10719-015-9626-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.