Quantitative Glycomics Research Articles

Glycan reductive isotope labeling for quantitative glycomics

Many diseases and disorders are characterized by quantitative and/or qualitative changes in complex carbohydrates. Mass spectrometry methods show promise in monitoring and detecting these important biological changes. Here we report a new glycomics method, termed glycan reductive isotope labeling (GRIL), where free glycans are derivatized by reductive amination with the differentially coded stable isotope tags [ 12C 6]aniline and [ 13C 6]aniline. These dual-labeled aniline-tagged glycans can be recovered by reverse-phase chromatography and can be quantified based on ultraviolet (UV) absorbance and relative ion abundances. Unlike previously reported isotopically coded reagents for glycans, GRIL does not contain deuterium, which can be chromatographically resolved. Our method shows no chromatographic resolution of differentially labeled glycans. Mixtures of differentially tagged glycans can be directly compared and quantified using mass spectrometric techniques. We demonstrate the use of GRIL to determine relative differences in glycan amount and composition. We analyze free glycans and glycans enzymatically or chemically released from a variety of standard glycoproteins, as well as human and mouse serum glycoproteins, using this method. This technique allows linear relative quantitation of glycans over a 10-fold concentration range and can accurately quantify sub-picomole levels of released glycans, providing a needed advancement in the field of glycomics.

Glycosylation Specific for Adhesion Molecules in Epidermis and Its Receptor Revealed by Glycoform-focused Reverse Genomics

Glycosylation of proteins greatly affects their structure and function, but traditional genomics and transcriptomics are not able to precisely capture tissue- or species-specific glycosylation patterns. We describe here a novel approach to link different "omics" data based on exhaustive quantitative glycomics of murine dermis and epidermis. We first examined the dermal and epidermal N-glycome of mouse by a recently established glycoblotting technique. We found that the Galalpha1-3Gal epitope was solely expressed in epidermis tissue and was preferentially attached to adhesion molecules in a glycosylation site-specific manner. Clarified glycomic and protemic information combined with publicly available microarray data sets allowed us to identify galectin-3 as a receptor of Galalpha1-3Gal epitope. These findings provide mechanistic insight into the causal connection between the genotype and the phenotype seen in alpha3GalT-1-deficient mice and transgenic mice expressing endo-beta-galactosidase C. Because humans do not possess the Galalpha1-3Gal structure on their tissues, we further examined the human dermal and epidermal N-glycome. Comparative glycomics revealed that the GalNAcbeta1-4GlcNAc (N,N'-diacetyllactosediamine) epitope, instead of the Galalpha1-3Gal epitope, was highly expressed in human epidermis.

Quantification by isobaric labeling (QUIBL) for the comparative glycomic study of O-linked glycans

Quantification by isobaric labeling (QUIBL) has recently been described as a tool for the relative quantification of N-linked glycans in glycomic studies. In this paper we expand the application of QUIBL to the relative quantification of O-linked glycans. Fetuin, which contains two O-linked glycans, NeuAc-Hex-HexNAc and NeuAc 2-Hex-HexNAc, was used to validate this study. The glycans were released by β-elimination and permethylated with the isobaric labeling reagents, 13CH 3I and 12CH 2DI. The exact mass difference between the isobaric labels is minimal (0.00292 Da), but since glycans contain multiple permethylation sites, the mass difference can be resolved with a high resolution mass spectrometer, such as an FTMS. Quantitative data were obtained by comparing the signal intensities from various mixtures of isobarically labeled O-linked glycans of fetuin. Five different ratios of 13CH 3 to 12CH 2D ranging from 10:1 to 1:10 were analyzed for linearity and reproducibility of the QUIBL method on the standard glycan. QUIBL was also evaluated using porcine mucin, a sample with a larger variety of more complex O-linked glycans. These results indicate that QUIBL allows for the relative quantification of O-linked glycans over a linear dynamic range of at least two orders of magnitude, validating QUIBL as an applicable quantitative glycomics approach for both N-linked and O-linked glycans.

Quantitative Glycomics of Human Whole Serum Glycoproteins Based on the Standardized Protocol for Liberating N-Glycans

Global glycomics of human whole serum glycoproteins appears to be an innovative and comprehensive approach to identify surrogate non-invasive biomarkers for various diseases. Despite the fact that quantitative glycomics is premised on highly efficient and reproducible oligosaccharide liberation from human serum glycoproteins, it should be noted that there is no validated protocol for which deglycosylation efficiency is proven to be quantitative. To establish a standard procedure to evaluate N-glycan release from whole human serum glycoproteins by peptide-N-glycosidase F (PNGase F) treatment, we determined the efficiencies of major N-glycan liberation from serum glycoproteins in the presence of reducing agents, surfactants, protease treatment, or combinations of pretreatments prior to PNGase F digestion. We show that de-N-glycosylation efficiency differed significantly depending on the condition used, indicative of the importance of a standardized protocol for the accumulation and comparison of glycomics data. Maximal de-N-glycosylation was achieved when serum was subjected to reductive alkylation in the presence of 2-hydroxyl-3-sulfopropyl dodecanoate, a surfactant used for solubilizing proteins, or related analogues, followed by tryptic digestion prior to PNGase F treatment. An optimized de-N-glycosylation protocol permitted relative and absolute quantitation of up to 34 major N-glycans present in serum glycoproteins of normal subjects for the first time. Moreover PNGase F-catalyzed de-N-glycosylation of whole serum glycoproteins was characterized kinetically, allowing accurate simulation of PNGase F-catalyzed de-N-glycosylation required for clinical glycomics using human serum samples. The results of the current study may provide a firm basis to identify new diagnostic markers based on serum glycomics analysis.

Rapid and Simple Solid‐Phase Esterification of Sialic Acid Residues for Quantitative Glycomics by Mass Spectrometry

A rapid and quantitative method for solid-phase methyl esterification of carboxy groups of various sialylated oligosaccharides has been established. The method employed a triazene derivative, 3-methyl-1-p-tolyltriazene, for facile derivatization of oligosaccharides immobilized onto general solid supports such as Affi-Gel Hz and gold colloidal nanoparticles in a multiwell plate. The workflow protocol was optimized for the solid-phase processing of captured sialylated/unsialylated oligosaccharides separated from crude sample mixtures by chemical ligation. From tryptic and/or PNGase F-digest mixtures of glycoproteins, purification by chemoselective immobilization, esterification and recovery were achieved in the same well of the filter plate within three hours when used in conjunction with "glycoblotting technology" (S.-I. Nishimura, K. Niikura, M. Kurogochi, T. Matsushita, M. Fumoto, H. Hinou, R. Kamitani, H. Nakagawa, K. Deguchi, N. Miura, K. Monde, H. Kondo, High-throughput protein glycomics: Combined use of chemoselective glycoblotting and MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry: Angew. Chem. 2005, 117, 93-98; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 91-96). The recovered materials were directly applicable to subsequent characterization by mass spectrometric techniques such as MALDI-TOF for large-scale glycomics of both neutral and sialylated oligosaccharides. On-bead/on-gold nanoparticle derivatization of glycans containing sialic acids allowed rapid and quantitative glycoform profiling by MALDI-TOF MS with reflector and positive ion mode. In addition to its simplicity and speed, the method eliminates the use of unfavorable halogenated solvents such as chloroform and dichloromethane or volatile solvents such as diethyl ether and hexane, resulting in a practical and green chemical method for automated robotic adaptation.

High Throughput Quantitative Glycomics and Glycoform-focused Proteomics of Murine Dermis and Epidermis

Despite recent advances in our understanding of the significance of the protein glycosylation, the throughput of protein glycosylation analysis is still too low to be applied to the exhaustive glycoproteomic analysis. Aiming to elucidate the N-glycosylation of murine epidermis and dermis glycoproteins, here we used a novel approach for focused proteomics. A gross N-glycan profiling (glycomics) of epidermis and dermis was first elucidated both qualitatively and quantitatively upon N-glycan derivatization with novel, stable isotope-coded derivatization reagents followed by MALDI-TOF(/TOF) analysis. This analysis revealed distinct features of the N-glycosylation profile of epidermis and dermis for the first time. A high abundance of high mannose type oligosaccharides was found to be characteristic of murine epidermis glycoproteins. Based on this observation, we performed high mannose type glycoform-focused proteomics by direct tryptic digestion of protein mixtures and affinity enrichment. We identified 15 glycoproteins with 19 N-glycosylation sites that carry high mannose type glycans by off-line LC-MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. Moreover the relative quantity of microheterogeneity of different glycoforms present at each N-glycan binding site was determined. Glycoproteins identified were often contained in lysosomes (e.g. cathepsin L and gamma-glutamyl hydrolase), lamellar granules (e.g. glucosylceramidase and cathepsin D), and desmosomes (e.g. desmocollin 1, desmocollin 3, and desmoglein). Lamellar granules are organelles found in the terminally differentiating cells of keratinizing epithelia, and desmosomes are intercellular junctions in vertebrate epithelial cells, thus indicating that N-glycosylation of tissue-specific glycoproteins may contribute to increase the relative proportion of high mannose glycans. The striking roles of lysosomal enzymes in epidermis during lipid remodeling and desquamation may also reflect the observed high abundance of high mannose glycans.