Nanotechnology in Glycomics: Applications in Diagnostics, Therapy, Imaging, and Separation Processes

Abstract

This review comprehensively covers the most recent achievements (from 2013) in the successful integration of nanomaterials in the field of glycomics. The first part of the paper addresses the beneficial properties of nanomaterials for the construction of biosensors, bioanalytical devices, and protocols for the detection of various analytes, including viruses and whole cells, together with their key characteristics. The second part of the review focuses on the application of nanomaterials integrated with glycans for various biomedical applications, that is, vaccines against viral and bacterial infections and cancer cells, as therapeutic agents, for in vivo imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and for selective drug delivery. The final part of the review describes various ways in which glycan enrichment can be effectively done using nanomaterials, molecularly imprinted polymers with polymer thickness controlled at the nanoscale, with a subsequent analysis of glycans by mass spectrometry. A short section describing an active glycoprofiling by microengines (microrockets) is covered as well.

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Based Biosensors: Mechanistic Principles, Analytical Examples and Challenges towards Commercialization for Assays of Protein Cancer Biomarkers

“…For any potential application in clinical practice, the device needs to be able to perform robustly in a real sample without any further steps being required to provide a rapid method, and with a minute sample consumption. To enhance the performance of affinity biosensors, nanostructured interfaces are often prepared to increase the amount of probe immobilized on the surface ,…”

Prostate-specific antigen glycoprofiling as diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of prostate cancer

“…-glycans are more structurally complex than proteins and DNA/RNA; -determination of glycan sequences using traditional instrumental techniques is challenging [24]; -glycan biosynthesis cannot be predicted from a template, as in the case of DNA and proteins [25].…”

Nanotechnology and sialic acid biology

“…Various scaffolds such as glycodendrimers or glycopolymers with high surface/volume ratios, allowing better surface contact with improved multivalency effects have been constructed from diverse nanomaterials including semiconductor, carbon-based nanomaterials and have been studied for carbohydrate-protein interactions and find applications in drug delivery, imaging, diagnostics, or sensitive quantitation tools. Polysaccharides nanomaterials including chitosan, dextran, hyaluronic acid, and heparin have been designed drug delivery devices [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and in pharmaceutical application with the advantages of biocompatibility, with reduced toxicity/nontoxicity, prolonged persistence, and drug release. Hybrid substructures are also constructed with metal-cored NPs coated with polysaccharides.…”