Glycomics and disease markers

Energy-resolved collision-induced dissociation pathways of model N-linked glycopeptides: implications for capturing glycan connectivity and peptide sequence in a single experiment

“…and human disease states (e.g., cancer; congenital disorders of glycosylation; neurodegenerative disorders, etc.). [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] While protein glycosylation analyses are oen carried out with either a "glycocentric" (i.e., compositional and structural analysis of glycans released from glycoproteins) or a "proteocentric" (i.e., identication of deglycosylated glycoproteins with indirect glycosylation site localization) outlook, the loss of molecular detail imposed by glycan release limits the specicity and potential for biological resolution that can be furnished by such analyses. 18 In order to map specic oligosaccharide structures to their corresponding sites of protein attachment, the analytical scheme must preserve the oligosaccharide-polypeptide connectivity until such a time that the chosen approach can characterize the linkage.…”

Extensive Determination of Glycan Heterogeneity Reveals an Unusual Abundance of High Mannose Glycans in Enriched Plasma Membranes of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

“…A majority of glycans are found on the cell surface, where they are optimally poised to be the first cellular components encountered by approaching cells, pathogens, antibodies, or other molecules, as well as advertise information about the internal state and homeostasis of the cell (3, 4). Therefore, glycans play an essential role in many biological processes, including cell development and differentiation, cell-cell or cell-matrix communication, and pathogen-host recognition (3,(5)(6)(7). In fact, differences in glycan profiles between healthy and diseased states are utilized for clinical diagnosis (7), providing targets for many novel classes of therapeutics including cancer chemotherapy, diabetes treatment, and antibiotic and anti-viral medicine (5, 8).…”

“…Therefore, glycans play an essential role in many biological processes, including cell development and differentiation, cell-cell or cell-matrix communication, and pathogen-host recognition (3,(5)(6)(7). In fact, differences in glycan profiles between healthy and diseased states are utilized for clinical diagnosis (7), providing targets for many novel classes of therapeutics including cancer chemotherapy, diabetes treatment, and antibiotic and anti-viral medicine (5,8). Glycans are highly heterogeneous in nature, varying in the composition of individual monosaccharide building blocks, the positions with which these building blocks link to each other, and the stereochemical disposition of the linkages (␣ or ␤).…”

Glycoscience aids in biomarker discovery

“…Up-or down-regulation of an individual transferase, thus, is amplified across the entire glycan biosynthetic pathway (and by induction all glycosylated proteins) making glycosylation an extremely sensitive indicator of intracellular conditions. Glycans and glycoproteins show great promise as a source of biomarkers for aberrant cell behavior and/or disease states such as cancer (6,7). The development of glycan-derived biomarkers depends heavily on the advancement of analytical technologies for elucidating the glycome.…”