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.
Highlights
The term nanotechnology was first used in 1974 by Professor Nario Taniguchi,[1] but the idea and concepts behind nanoscience began more than a decade earlier with a talk by Professor Richard Feynman, “Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom.”[2]
The selective interaction of a disaccharide called Thomas Friedrich antigen (TFag) with specific tumor cells displaying Gal-3 lectin had a cytotoxic effect on the targeted cells: a conjugate of small AuPs coated with TFag via an amino acid linker was synthesized, and an approximately 100-fold higher cytotoxicity toward the Gal-3-positive cells was achieved compared to monomeric units.[274]
Glycopeptides prepared by a tryptic digest from two glycoproteins (HRP and immunoglobulin G (IgG)) could be enriched with a binding capacity of 60 mg g−1, and as much as 10 ng (ß200 fmol) of protein was needed for glycoprofiling with a rather low enhancement of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-TOF signal compared to the signal obtained without enrichment.[500]
Summary
The term nanotechnology was first used in 1974 by Professor Nario Taniguchi,[1] but the idea and concepts behind nanoscience began more than a decade earlier with a talk by Professor Richard Feynman, “Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom.”[2]. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins other than enzymes or antibodies and other than carbohydrate sensor/transport proteins[45] with potential therapeutic applications.[46] Lectins as natural glycan-recognizing proteins can be effectively applied to analyze glycans because they can detect intact glycans still attached to proteins or even cells.[47,48,49,50] The first step toward the effective utilization of lectins in glycan analysis and for diagnostic purposes was the introduction of lectin microarrays/biochips.[51,52,53,54] Glycan microarrays are a valuable tool in glycomics for the identification of glycan-binding proteins,[55,56] and together with lectin microarrays, such highly parallel analyses with a minute consumption of reagents had led to numerous important discoveries regarding glycan involvement in various cellular processes. A partial functional restoration of glycosidases used to cure “liposomal storage diseases” (e.g., Gaucher disease) mediated via glycan interactions has been described as well
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