Glycomics meets artificial intelligence - Potential of glycan analysis for identification of seropositive and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis patients revealed.

In this study, one hundred serum samples from healthy people and patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were analyzed. Standard immunoassays for detection of 10 different RA markers and analysis of glycan markers on antibodies in 10 different assay formats with several lectins were applied for each serum sample. A dataset containing 2000 data points was data mined using artificial neural networks (ANN). We identified key RA markers, which can discriminate between healthy people and seropositive RA patients (serum containing autoantibodies) with accuracy of 83.3%. Combination of RA markers with glycan analysis provided much better discrimination accuracy of 92.5%. Immunoassays completely failed to identify seronegative RA patients (serum not containing autoantibodies), while glycan analysis correctly identified 43.8% of these patients. Further, we revealed other critical parameters for successful glycan analysis such as type of a sample, format of analysis and orientation of captured antibodies for glycan analysis.

Full-length antibodies versus single-chain antibody fragments for a selective impedimetric lectin-based glycoprofiling of prostate specific antigen.

The main aim of the research was to design a functional impedimetric biosensor able to glycoprofile prostate specific antigen (PSA), a biomarker for prostate cancer (PCa), with high specificity using lectins as glycan recognising proteins. Traditionally, full-length antibody is immobilised on the biosensor interface for specific capture of PSA with subsequent glycoprofiling of PSA by addition of lectins. Since full-length antibodies contain glycans in the Fc domain, particular attention has to be paid to suppress direct binding of lectins to immobilised full-length antibodies, which would compromise accurate glycoprofiling. This issue is addressed here using a recombinant single-chain antibody fragments (scAb), which do not contain any carbohydrate moiety. Surface plasmon resonance was applied to prove negligible interaction of lectins with immobilised scAb fragments, while substantial binding of lectins to full length antibodies was observed. Eight different biosensor designs were tested for their ability to detect PSA. The biosensor device based on scAb fragments covalently immobilised on the gold electrode surface, patterned by a mixed SAM using standard amine coupling chemistry, proved to be the most sensitive. The scAb fragment-based biosensor exhibited sensitivity of 15.9 ± 0.8% decade-1 (R2 = 0.991 with an average RSD of 4.9%), while the full antibody-based biosensor offered sensitivity towards PSA of 4.2 ± 0.1% decade-1 (R2 = 0.999 with an average RSD of 4.8%). Moreover, the selectivity of the scAb-based biosensor was tested using a kallikrein 2 protein, a protein structurally similar to PSA, and the results indicated high selectivity for PSA detection.

Label-free chronopotentiometric glycoprofiling of prostate specific antigen using sialic acid recognizing lectins.

In recent decades, it has become clear that most of human proteins are glycosylated and that protein glycosylation plays an important role in health and diseases. At present, simple, fast and inexpensive methods are sought for clinical applications and particularly for improved diagnostics of various diseases, including cancer. We propose a label- and reagent-free electrochemical method based on chronopotentiometric stripping (CPS) analysis and a hanging mercury drop electrode for the detection of interaction of sialylated protein biomarker a prostate specific antigen (PSA) with two important lectins: Sambucus nigra agglutinin (SNA) and Maackia amurensis agglutinin (MAA). Incubation of PSA-modified electrode with specific SNA lectin resulted in an increase of CPS peak H of the complex as compared to this peak of individual PSA. By adjusting polarization current and temperature, PSA-MAA interaction can be either eliminated or distinguished from the more abundant PSA-SNA complex. CPS data were in a good agreement with the data obtained by complementary methods, namely surface plasmon resonance and fluorescent lectin microarray. It can be anticipated that CPS will find application in glycomics and proteomics.

Glycan and lectin biosensors.

A short description about the importance of glycan biorecognition in physiological (blood cell type) and pathological processes (infections by human and avian influenza viruses) is provided in this review. Glycans are described as much better information storage media, compared to proteins or DNA, due to the extensive variability of glycan structures. Techniques able to detect an exact glycan structure are briefly discussed with the main focus on the application of lectins (glycan-recognising proteins) in the specific analysis of glycans still attached to proteins or cells/viruses. Optical, electrochemical, piezoelectric and micromechanical biosensors with immobilised lectins or glycans able to detect a wide range of analytes including whole cells/viruses are also discussed.

Mixed Zwitterion-Based Self-Assembled Monolayer Interface for Impedimetric Glycomic Analyses of Human IgG Samples in an Array Format.

An impedimetric lectin biosensor for the detection of changes in the glycan structure of antibodies isolated from human serum is here correlated with the progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The biosensor was built up from a mixed self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on gold consisting of two different thiolated zwitterionic derivatives, carboxybetaine and sulfobetaine, to resist nonspecific interactions. The carboxyl-terminated one was applied also for the covalent immobilization of lectin Ricinus communis agglutinin I (RCA-I). The process of building a bioreceptive layer was optimized and characterized using a diverse range of techniques. Impedimetric assays were integrated on a chip consisting of eight gold working electrodes, which is an important step toward the achievement of a moderate level of multiplexing for the analysis of human serum samples. At the end, the results obtained by the impedimetric analysis of immunoglobulins G (IgGs) isolated from serum samples were compared with those of two other standard bioanalytical methods employing lectins, that is, lectin microarrays (MAs) and enzyme-linked lectin binding assays (ELLBAs). The impedimetric results agreed very well with the DAS28 index (RA disease activity score 28), suggesting that impedimetric assays could be used for the development of a new diagnostic procedure sensitive to glycosylation changes in human IgGs and thus RA progression.

Sweet characterisation of prostate specific antigen using electrochemical lectin-based immunosensor assay and MALDI TOF/TOF analysis: Focus on sialic acid.

The construction of a sensitive electrochemical lectin-based immunosensor for detection of a prostate specific antigen (PSA) is shown here. Three lectins with different carbohydrate specificities were used in this study to glycoprofile PSA, which is the most common biomarker for prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis. The biosensor showed presence of α-L-fucose and α-(2,6)-linked terminal sialic acid within PSA´s glycan with high abundance, while only traces of α-(2,3)-linked terminal sialic acid were found. MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometry was applied to validate results obtained by the biosensor with a focus on determination of a type of sialic acid linkage by two methods. The first direct comparison of electrochemical immunosensor assay employing lectins for PSA glycoprofiling with mass spectrometric techniques is provided here and both methods show significant agreement. Thus, electrochemical lectin-based immunosensor has potential to be applied for prostate cancer diagnosis.

Can glycoprofiling be helpful in detecting prostate cancer?

Glycans are chains of carbohydrates attached to proteins (glycoproteins and proteoglycans) or lipids (glycolipids). Glycosylation is a posttranslational modification and glycans have a wide range of functions in a human body including involvement in oncological diseases. Change in a glycan structure cannot only indicate presence of a pathological process, but more importantly in some cases also its stage. Thus, a glycan analysis has a potential to be an effective and reliable tool in cancer diagnostics. Lectins are proteins responsible for natural biorecognition of glycans, even carbohydrate moieties still attached to proteins or whole cells can be recognized by lectins, what makes them an ideal candidate for designing label-free biosensors for glycan analysis. In this review we would like to summarize evidence that glycoprofiling of biomarkers by lectin-based biosensors can be really helpful in detecting prostate cancer.