Chip‐mass spectrometry for glycomic studies

Abstract

The introduction of micro- and nanochip front end technologies for electrospray mass spectrometry addressed a major challenge in carbohydrate analysis: high sensitivity structural determination and heterogeneity assessment in high dynamic range mixtures of biological origin. Chip-enhanced electrospray ionization was demonstrated to provide reproducible performance irrespective of the type of carbohydrate, while the amenability of chip systems for coupling with different mass spectrometers greatly advance the chip/MS technique as a versatile key tool in glycomic studies. A more accurate representation of the glycan repertoire to include novel biologically-relevant information was achieved in different biological sources, asserting this technique as a valuable tool in glycan biomarker discovery and monitoring. Additionally, the integration of various analytical functions onto chip devices and direct hyphenation to MS proved its potential for glycan analysis during the recent years, whereby a new analytical tool is on the verge of maturation: lab-on-chip MS glycomics. The achievements until early beginning of 2007 on the implementation of chip- and functional integrated chip/MS in systems glycobiology studies are reviewed here.

Glycomics using mass spectrometry

“…Recently, chip-based approaches for glycosphingolipid analysis have been reviewed [59, 62]. Importantly, there is also technology available to combine the most commonly applied separation technique in lipid, as well as glycolipid analysis, high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC), with MS. For example, glycosphingolipids separated by HPTLC can be probed by overlay detection using carbohydrate-binding proteins such as lectins, bacterial toxins, and antibodies, followed by the MS analysis of positive bands, either directly from the HPTLC plate or after lipid extraction, as reviewed recently by Meisen et al [63].…”

Recent advances in sialic acid-focused glycomics

“…The suppression of sample diffusion and conditions for electronic spray are important to achieve sensitive detection in ESI MS analysis, and nano-LC-ESI MS methods are primarily used in microanalysis. In addition, chip-ESI MS method for glycan analysis has been developed [80]. In this section specific advances for both MALDI MS and ESI MS analysis of sialylglycans are described.…”

High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for mapping and sequencing glycosaminoglycan-derived oligosaccharides

“…High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) have been used in combination with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) to solve many GAG-derived oligosaccharide structures (see reviews in refs. 2,26,28-31). NMR spectroscopy is limited by the necessity to obtain relatively large amounts of pure sample and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, whereas a powerful technique also requires a pure sample and can be sufficiently energetic to damage the analyte.…”