Unravelling Immunoglobulin G Fc N-Glycosylation: A Dynamic Marker Potentiating Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine

Robust antigen-specific tuning of the nanoscale barrier properties of biogels using matrix-associating IgG and IgM antibodies

Biological hydrogels (biogels) are selective barriers that restrict passage of harmful substances yet allow the rapid movement of nutrients and select cells. Current methods to modulate the barrier properties of biogels typically involve bulk changes in order to restrict diffusion by either steric hindrance or direct high-affinity interactions with microstructural constituents. Here, we introduce a third mechanism, based on antibody-based third party anchors that bind specific foreign species but form only weak and transient bonds with biogel constituents. The weak affinity to biogel constituents allows antibody anchors to quickly accumulate on the surface of specific foreign species and facilitates immobilization via multiple crosslinks with the biogel matrix. Using the basement membrane Matrigel® and a mixture of laminin/entactin, we demonstrate that antigen-specific, but not control, IgG and IgM efficiently immobilize a variety of individual nanoparticles. The addition of Salmonella typhimurium-binding IgG to biogel markedly reduced the invasion of these highly motile bacteria. These results underscore a generalized strategy through which the barrier properties of biogels can be readily tuned with molecular specificity against a diverse array of particulates. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Biological hydrogels (biogels) are essential in living systems to control the movement of cells and unwanted substances. However, current methods to control transport within biogels rely on altering the microstructure of the biogel matrix at a gross level, either by reducing the pore size to restrict passage through steric hindrance or by chemically modifying the matrix itself. Both methods are either nonspecific or not scalable. Here, we offer a new approach, based on weakly adhesive third-party molecular anchors, that allow for a variety of foreign entities to be trapped within a biogel simultaneously with exceptional potency and molecular specificity, without perturbing the bulk properties of the biogel. This strategy greatly increases our ability to control the properties of biogels at the nanoscale, including those used for wound healing or tissue engineering applications.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Integrative Analysis of Multiomics Data for Biomarker Discovery

Increased fasting plasma glucose (FPG) is an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The development of systems biology technologies for integration of multiomics data is crucial for predicting increased FPG levels. In this case-control study, immunoglobulin (Ig) G glycosylation profiling and genome-wide association analyses were performed on 511 participants, and among them 76 had increased FPG (aged 47.6 ± 6.14 years), and 435 had decreased or fluctuant FPG (aged 47.9 ± 6.08 years). We identified nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in five genes (RPL7AP27, SNX30, SLC39A12, BACE2, and IGFL2) that were significantly associated with increased FPG (odds ratios 1.937-2.393). Moreover, of the 24 glycan peaks (GPs), GPs 3, 8, and 11 presented positive trends with increased FPG levels, whereas GPs 4 and 14 presented negative trends. A significant improvement of predictive power was observed when adding 24 IgG GPs to 9 SNPs with the area under the curve increased from 0.75 to 0.81. This report shows that the combination of candidate SNPs with IgG glycomics offers biomarker potentials for T2DM. The substantial predictive power obtained from integrating genomics and glycomics biomarkers suggests the feasibility of applying such multiomics strategies to enable predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine for T2DM.