Despite long history of carbohydrate/glycan research, the study of glycans has lagged far behind the study of other biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids, due partially to their complex structures. In the last few decades, glycoscience has re-gained signficiant interest in biomedical research as more and more glycans and their interactions with glycan binding proteins (GBPs) are discovered to play important roles in various biological pathways. Technological advancement in mass spectrometry and HPLC have greatly facilitated structural profiling and analysis of complex glycans. Glycan microarray technology has made significant contributions to functional studies of glycans as ligands for GBPs. One of the major challenges in glycoscience is still the accessibility of large numbers of diverse and biomedically relevant complex glycans in significant quantities. Synthesis of complex glycan structure remains a very specialized and challenging task despite recent improvements in chemical and enzymatic synthesis. As an alternative and complementary approach, we have focused on the exploration of natural glycans for functional study, especially with glycan microarray technology. Due to the high heterogeneity and low abundance of natural complex glycans and the fact that glycans are not amplifiable, large amounts of natural material are required to access glycans in significant quantities, especially for minor but potentially functional components. To this end, we have developed simple chemical methods for oxidative release of natural glycans (ORNG) using household bleach. From kilogram scale natural materials including animal/plant tissues, tens to hundreds of grams of complex glycans can be quickly obtained and separated by preparative chromatography to yield purified natural glycans in high milligram quantities. We have also developed novel glycan microarray technology for functional studies of natural glycans.

Chemical approaches to exploration of protein-glycan interactions of natural glycans

2019 Spring National Meeting

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