Glycan arrays: recent advances and future challenges

Abstract

Summary-Carbohydrate arrays, also referred to as glycan arrays, are composed of various oligosaccharides and/or polysaccharides immobilized on a solid support in a spatially-defined arrangement. This technology provides a powerful, high-throughput approach to examining carbohydrate-macromolecule interactions, and glycan arrays have had a significant impact on the field of glycobiology. This review focuses on recent advances in glycan array technology, limitations, and opportunities for improvement. In particular, new methods for the production of natural glycan arrays and chemo-enzymatic approaches are greatly expanding the diversity of structures on arrays. Since multivalent complex formation is general required to achieve tight binding, methods to evaluate and modulate presentation are vital for enhancing the capabilities of this technology.

Determination of Carbohydrate‐Binding Preferences of Human Galectins with Carbohydrate Microarrays

“…Whereas stronger lactose binding has been reported for some galectins, such as galectin-8, [22] stronger binding of galectin-1, galectin-2, and galectin-3 to lactose than to LacNAc contrasts with previous findings and is presumably assay-specific, as is commonly observed for glycan analysis and microarray experiments. [21,25,41] The binding preferences of galectins established here emphasize that distinct glycosylations on the basic lactose or LacNAc motifs are extremely important for targeted galectin binding, because sugar residues adjacent to basic motifs alter galectin affinity most drastically (Figure 4). In particular, 3'-Oglycosylations of LacNAc, including 3'-O-b galactosidation of lactose as well as (aÀ)blood group glycosylations and a-mannosylation, strongly enhanced binding of most galectins.…”

Anti-Human Embryonic Stem Cell Monoclonal Antibody Hesca-2 Binds to a Glycan Epitope Commonly Found on Carcinomas

“…Glycan arrays are analogous to DNA and protein arrays but contain many different oligosaccharides immobilized on a glass microarray slide (for recent reviews, see [20][21][22]). The glycan array contained a diverse set of 204 carbohydrates and glycoproteins printed on a glass microscope slide using a robotic microarrayer (for a full list of glycans on the array, see supplementary Table S1).…”

Humoral response to a viral glycan correlates with survival on PROSTVAC-VF

“…Glycan microarrays (20,21), which contain hundreds of carbohydrates immobilized on microscope slides, provide a multiplex assay for analyzing serum antiglycan antibodies that uses only minute amounts of valuable glycans and clinical samples (e.g., only 2-4 μL of serum). This approach, referred to as "glycoimmunomics," generates a comprehensive profile of antiglycan immune responses.…”