The ammonia-catalyzed release of glycoprotein N-glycans

Unlocking the future of colorectal cancer detection: Advances in screening glycosylation-based biomarkers on biological mass spectrometry technology

The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasingly affecting younger populations, with its mortality rate rising annually. However, current clinical diagnostic techniques, such as colonoscopy and CEA antigen testing, remain invasive and prone to false-positive results, complicating early diagnosis and intervention. Glycosylation, a key post-translational modification, plays an essential role in cellular function, physiological regulation, and disease processes. In recent years, mass spectrometry technology has emerged as a powerful tool for screening glycan biomarkers, owing to its exceptional separation capabilities and sensitivity. This review encompasses the advancements in CRC glycan biomarkers from 2016 to 2024, with particular emphasis placed on N/O-glycan biomarkers identified through mass spectrometry. Nonetheless, the intrinsic low abundance and polyhydroxy nature of glycans hinder the specificity and sensitivity of current glycan biomarkers. To overcome these limitations, this article outlines pretreatment strategies for N/O-glycans, including glycan release, enrichment, purification, and derivatization, in conjunction with relative quantification techniques and high-throughput bioinformatics tools for biomarker screening. These strategies are anticipated to enhance the efficiency and precision of glycan biomarker identification through mass spectrometry. These advancements hold significant promise for enhancing CRC prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, thereby potentially improving patient outcomes and quality of life.

Functional prediction of the potential NGLY1 mutations associated with rare disease CDG

Genetic diseases are currently diagnosed by functional mutations. However, only some mutations are associated with disease. It is necessary to establish a quick prediction model for clinical screening. Pathogenic mutations in NGLY1 cause a rare autosomal recessive disease known as congenital disorder of deglycosylation (NGLY1-CDDG). Although NGLY1-CDDG can be diagnosed through gene sequencing, clinical relevance of a detected mutation in NGLY1 needs to be further confirmed. In this study, taken NGLY1-CDDG as an example, a comprehensive and practical predictive model for pathogenic mutations on NGLY1 through an NGLY1/Glycopeptide complex model was constructed, the binding sites of NGLY1 and glycopeptides were simulated, and an in vitro enzymatic assay system was established to facilitate quick clinical decisions for NGLY1-CDDG patients. The docking model covers 42 % of reported NGLY1-CDDG missense mutations (5/12). All reported mutations were subjected to in vitro enzymatic assay in which 18 mutations were dysfunctional (18/30). In addition, a full spectrum of functional R328 mutations was assayed and 11 mutations were dysfunctional (11/19). In this study, a model of NGLY1 and glycopeptides was built for potential functional mutations in NGLY1. In addition, the effect of potential regulatory compounds, including N-acetyl-l-cysteine and dithiothreitol, on NGLY1 was examined. The established in vitro assay may serve as a standard protocol to facilitate rapid diagnosis of all mutations in NGLY1-CDDG. This method could also be applied as a comprehensive and practical predictive model for the other rare genetic diseases.

Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: An update for 2017-2018

This review is the tenth update of the original article published in 1999 on the application of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI) mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates and brings coverage of the literature to the end of 2018. Also included are papers that describe methods appropriate to glycan and glycoprotein analysis by MALDI, such as sample preparation techniques, even though the ionization method is not MALDI. Topics covered in the first part of the review include general aspects such as theory of the MALDI process, new methods, matrices, derivatization, MALDI imaging, fragmentation and the use of arrays. The second part of the review is devoted to applications to various structural types such as oligo- and poly-saccharides, glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycosides, and biopharmaceuticals. Most of the applications are presented in tabular form. The third part of the review covers medical and industrial applications of the technique, studies of enzyme reactions, and applications to chemical synthesis. The reported work shows increasing use of combined new techniques such as ion mobility and highlights the impact that MALDI imaging is having across a range of diciplines. MALDI is still an ideal technique for carbohydrate analysis and advancements in the technique and the range of applications continue steady progress.

Construction of InstantPC derivatized glycan GU database: A foundation work for high-throughput and high-sensitivity glycomic analysis

Glycosylation is well-recognized as a critical quality attribute of biotherapeutics being routinely monitored to ensure desired product quality, safety, and efficacy. Additionally, as one of the most prominent and complex post-translational modifications, glycosylation plays a key role in disease manifestation. Changes in glycosylation may serve as a specific and sensitive biomarker for disease diagnostics and prognostics. However, the conventional 2-aminobenzamide based N-glycosylation analysis procedure is time-consuming and insensitive, with poor reproducibility. We have evaluated an innovative streamlined 96-well-plate-based platform utilizing InstantPC label for high-throughput, high-sensitivity glycan profiling, which is user-friendly, robust, and ready for automation. However, the limited availability of InstantPC labelled glycan standards has significantly hampered the applicability and transferability of this platform for expedited glycan structural profiling. To address this challenge, we have constructed a detailed InstantPC labelled glycan glucose unit database through analysis of human serum and a variety of other glycoproteins from various sources. Following preliminary hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection separation and analysis, glycoproteins with complex glycan profiles were subjected to further fractionation by weak anion exchange hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography and exoglycosidase sequential digestion for cross-validation of the glycan assignment. Hydrophilic interaction ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry was subsequently utilised for glycan fragmentation and accurate glycan mass confirmation. The constructed InstantPC glycan GU database is accurate and robust. It is believed that this database will enhance the application of the developed platform for high-throughput, high-sensitivity glycan profiling, and eventually advance glycan-based biopharmaceutical production and disease biomarker discovery.

Mass Spectrometry-Based Methods for Immunoglobulin G N-Glycosylation Analysis

Mass spectrometry and its hyphenated techniques enabled by the improvements in liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, novel ionization, and fragmentation modes are truly a cornerstone of robust and reliable protein glycosylation analysis. Boost in immunoglobulin G (IgG) glycan and glycopeptide profiling demands for both applied biomedical and research applications has brought many new advances in the field in terms of technical innovations, sample preparation, improved throughput, and confidence in glycan structural characterization. This chapter summarizes mass spectrometry basics, focusing on IgG and monoclonal antibody N-glycosylation analysis on several complexity levels. Different approaches, including antibody enrichment, glycan release, labeling, and glycopeptide preparation and purification, are covered and illustrated with recent breakthroughs and examples from the literature omitting excessive theoretical frameworks. Finally, selected highly popular methodologies in IgG glycoanalytics such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization are discussed more thoroughly yet in simple terms making this text a practical starting point either for the beginner in the field or an experienced clinician trying to make sense out of the IgG glycomic or glycoproteomic dataset.

NEGATIVE ION MASS SPECTROMETRY FOR THE ANALYSIS OF N-LINKED GLYCANS

N-glycans from glycoproteins are complex, branched structures whose structural determination presents many analytical problems. Mass spectrometry, usually conducted in positive ion mode, often requires extensive sample manipulation, usually by derivatization such as permethylation, to provide the necessary structure-revealing fragment ions. The newer but, so far, lesser used negative ion techniques, on the contrary, provide a wealth of structural information not present in positive ion spectra that greatly simplify the analysis of these compounds and can usually be conducted without the need for derivatization. This review describes the use of negative ion mass spectrometry for the structural analysis of N-linked glycans and emphasises the many advantages that can be gained by this mode of operation. Biosynthesis and structures of the compounds are described followed by methods for release of the glycans from the protein. Methods for ionization are discussed with emphasis on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and methods for producing negative ions from neutral compounds. Acidic glycans naturally give deprotonated species under most ionization conditions. Fragmentation of negative ions is discussed next with particular reference to those ions that are diagnostic for specific features such as the branching topology of the glycans and substitution positions of moieties such as fucose and sulfate, features that are often difficult to identify easily by conventional techniques such as positive ion fragmentation and exoglycosidase digestions. The advantages of negative over positive ions for this structural work are emphasised with an example of a series of glycans where all other methods failed to produce a structure. Fragmentation of derivatized glycans is discussed next, both with respect to derivatives at the reducing terminus of the molecules, and to methods for neutralization of the acidic groups on sialic acids to both stabilize them for MALDI analysis and to produce the diagnostic fragments seen with the neutral glycans. The use of ion mobility, combined with conventional mass spectrometry is described with emphasis on its use to extract clean glycan spectra both before and after fragmentation, to separate isomers and its use to extract additional information from separated fragment ions. A section on applications follows with examples of the identification of novel structures from lower organisms and tables listing the use of negative ions for structural identification of specific glycoproteins, glycans from viruses and uses in the biopharmaceutical industry and in medicine. The review concludes with a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the technique. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Mass Spec Rev.

Amplification and Preparation of Cellular O-Glycomes for Functional Glycomics

Mucin-type O-glycans play key roles in many cellular processes, and they are often altered in human diseases. A major challenge in studying the role of O-glycans through functional O-glycomics is the absence of a complete repertoire of the glycans that comprise the human O-glycome. Here we describe a cellular O-glycome preparation strategy, Preparative Cellular O-Glycome Reporter/Amplification (pCORA), that introduces 4-N₃-Bn-GalNAc(Ac)₃ as a novel precursor in large-scale cell cultures to generate usable amounts of O-glycans as a potential O-glycome factory. Cultured human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) A549 cells take up the precursor, which is extended by cellular glycosyltransferases to produce 4-N₃-Bn-α-O-glycans that are secreted into the culture medium. The O-glycan derivatives can be clicked with a fluorescent bifunctional tag that allows multidimensional HPLC purification and production of a tagged glycan library, representing the O-glycome of the corresponding cells. We obtained ∼5% conversion of precursor to O-glycans and purified a tagged O-glycan library of over 100 O-glycan derivatives, many of which were present in >100 nmol amounts and were sequenced by sequential MS fragmentation (MSⁿ). These O-glycans were successfully printed onto epoxy glass slides as an O-glycome shotgun microarray. We used this novel array to explore binding activity of serum IgM in healthy persons and NSCLC patients at different cancer stages. This novel strategy provides access to complex O-glycans in significant quantities and may offer a new route to discovery of potential diagnostic disease biomarkers.

Purification of N- and O-glycans and their derivatives from biological samples by the absorbent cotton hydrophilic chromatographic column

Mass spectrum (MS) is one of the most commonly used tools for qualitative and quantitative analysis of glycans. However, due to the complexity of biological samples and the low ionization efficiency of glycans, these need to be purified and derivatized prior to MS analysis. Existing purification strategies require a combination of multiple methods and are cumbersome to operate. Here, we propose a new method for the purification of glycoprotein N/O-glycans and their derivatives using a hand-packed absorbent cotton hydrophilic interaction chromatography column (HILIC). The method's reliability and applicability were verified by purifying N/O-glycans and the derivatives of standard glycoproteins, such as chicken albumin and porcine stomach mucin. Stable isotope labelling was used to compare the glycans' recovery following different purification methods. Absorbent cotton HILIC was also successfully applied for the analysis of human serum and fetal bovine serum glycoprotein N-glycans. Finally, testing revealed high binding capacity (9 mg/g^-1 maltohexaose/absorbent cotton) and good recovery (average recovery was 91.7%) of glycans. Compared with traditional procedures, the proposed purification method offers considerable advantages, such as simplicity, high efficiency, economy, universality, and broad applicability for the pretreatment of glycans and their derivatives in biological samples prior to MS analysis.

Separation and preparation of N-glycans based on ammonia-catalyzed release method

The study of carbohydrates requires large amounts of glycans. N-Glycans can be synthesized but generating large quantities of N-glycans with diverse structures remains difficult. In this study, we aimed to obtain large amounts of glycans using an optimized procedure. Two types of reductive N-glycans were released from chicken egg albumin (ovalbumin) and soy protein using an ammonia catalysis method and labeled with benzenesulfonyl hydrazide (BSH). After preliminary separation by preparative HPLC, N-glycan-BSH components were de-labeled separately and reducing N-glycans were recovered. The de-labeled reducing N-glycans were derived with different labeling reagents and further separated and purified with two/multi-dimensional HPLC for various studies. We selected the bifunctional reagent 2-amino-N-(2-aminoethyl)-benzamide (AEAB) as a labeling reagent combined with C18 column for two-dimensional HPLC separation. A total of 21 and 8 N-glycan-AEAB conjugates were obtained from ovalbumin and soy protein, respectively. A reactive primary alkylamine of N-glycan-AEAB conjugates can be effectively immobilized on microarray surfaces, allowing for subsequent functional studies of glycans.

Preparation of chondroitin sulfates with different molecular weights from bovine nasal cartilage and their antioxidant activities

Biological functions of chondroitin sulfate, including anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation, are associated with its molecular weight. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between antioxidant activity and molecular weights of chondroitin sulfate derived from bovine nasal cartilage (BCS). BCS extracted by compound enzymatic method was further purified via DEAE-cellulose column separation to obtain BCS-II (129.4 kDa), which was further degraded by H₂O₂-Vc to obtain four subfractions: BCS-II-1 (92.7 kDa), BCS-II-2 (54.1 kDa), BCS-II-3 (26.3 kDa), and BCS-II-4 (19.7 kDa). Changes in the physicochemical properties of BCS-II before and after degradation were compared via FT-IR, NMR and monosaccharide composition analysis. Finally, antioxidant activities of BCS-II and its subfractions BCS-II-1-4 were compared. Our results showed that the H₂O₂-Vc system did not disrupt the primary functional group of BCS-II, with no significant change in sulfate content between BCS-II and its degraded fractions; however, uronic acid levels increased in degraded fractions when compared with BCS-II. In vitro, BCS-II-4 displayed the lowest molecular weight and had the strongest antioxidant activity. Therefore, the antioxidant activity of chondroitin sulfate in vitro is robustly associated with its molecular weight, and low-molecular-weight chondroitin sulfate can be used as an antioxidant in the food and pharmaceutical industries and other sectors.

Mass spectrometry-based qualitative and quantitative N-glycomics: An update of 2017-2018

N-glycosylation is one of the most frequently occurring protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) with broad cellular, physiological and pathological relevance. Mass spectrometry-based N-glycomics has become the state-of-the-art instrumental analytical pipeline for sensitive, high-throughput and comprehensive characterization of N-glycans and N-glycomes. Improvement and new development of methods in N-glycan release, enrichment, derivatization, isotopic labeling, separation, ionization, MS, tandem MS and informatics accompany side-by-side wider and deeper application. This review provides a comprehensive update of mass spectrometry-based qualitative and quantitative N-glycomics in the years of 2017-2018.