Changes in serum N-glycosylation profiles: functional significance and potential for diagnostics

MARIÑO, KARINA; SALDOVA, RADKA; ADAMCZYK, BARBARA; RUDD, PAULINE M

Carbohydrate Chemistry: Chemical and Biological Approaches (Special Periodic Reports)

Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing

Año: 2011;

As protein glycosylation is prevalent in proteins destined for extracellularenvironments, analysis of glycoproteins from body fluids has shown to be a veryvaluable tool for the description of certain cellular processes, such as tumourdevelopment. Currently the most useful biological samples are serum or plasmadue to their accessibility and representative complexity. This complexity is due, inpart, to wide dynamic range of protein/glycoprotein concentrations. In fact, it isestimated that there are more than 106 different proteins in human serum butgreat majority is present in very low concentration. The focus of this chapter is togive an insight into the biological significance of the serum N-glycome,highlighting some specific examples of glycobiomarkers in health and diseaseand exploring the increasingly clear connection between altered N-glycosylationin inflammation and cancer. We will particularly focus on N-linked glycans anddiscuss the exciting possibility of moving from discovery to clinical phase, wherethese changes might help to improve diagnostic and prognostic tools.