Glycan microarrays from construction to applications

Through their specific interactions with proteins, cellular glycans play key roles in a wide range of physiological and pathological processes. One of the main goals of research in the areas of glycobiology and glycomedicine is to understand glycan-protein interactions at the molecular level. Over the past two decades, glycan microarrays have become powerful tools for the rapid evaluation of interactions between glycans and proteins. In this review, we briefly describe methods used for the preparation of glycan probes and the construction of glycan microarrays. Next, we highlight applications of glycan microarrays to rapid profiling of glycan-binding patterns of plant, animal and pathogenic lectins, as well as other proteins. Finally, we discuss other important uses of glycan microarrays, including the rapid analysis of substrate specificities of carbohydrate-active enzymes, the quantitative determination of glycan-protein interactions, discovering high-affinity or selective ligands for lectins, and identifying functional glycans within cells. We anticipate that this review will encourage researchers to employ glycan microarrays in diverse glycan-related studies.

Glycan Arrays: From Basic Biochemical Research to Bioanalytical and Biomedical Applications

A major branch of glycobiology and glycan-focused biomedicine studies the interaction between carbohydrates and other biopolymers, most importantly, glycan-binding proteins. Today, this research into glycan-biopolymer interaction is unthinkable without glycan arrays, tools that enable high-throughput analysis of carbohydrate interaction partners. Glycan arrays offer many applications in basic biochemical research, for example, defining the specificity of glycosyltransferases and lectins such as immune receptors. Biomedical applications include the characterization and surveillance of influenza strains, identification of biomarkers for cancer and infection, and profiling of immune responses to vaccines. Here, we review major applications of glycan arrays both in basic and applied research. Given the dynamic nature of this rapidly developing field, we focus on recent findings.

Regeneration of recombinant antigen microarrays for the automated monitoring of antibodies against zoonotic pathogens in swine sera

The ability to regenerate immobilized proteins like recombinant antigens (rAgs) on surfaces is an unsolved problem for flow-based immunoassays on microarray analysis systems. The regeneration on microarray chip surfaces is achieved by changing the protein structures and desorption of antibodies. Afterwards, reactivation of immobilized protein antigens is necessary for reconstitution processes. Any backfolding should be managed in a way that antibodies are able to detect the protein antigens in the next measurement cycle. The regeneration of rAg microarrays was examined for the first time on the MCR3 flow-based chemiluminescence (CL) microarray analysis platform. The aim was to reuse rAg microarray chips in order to reduce the screening effort and costs. An antibody capturing format was used to detect antibodies against zoonotic pathogens in sera of slaughtered pigs. Different denaturation and reactivation buffers were tested. Acidic glycine-SDS buffer (pH 2.5) and 8 M guanidinium hydrochloride showed the best results in respect of denaturation efficiencies. The highest CL signals after regeneration were achieved with a carbonate buffer containing 10 mM DTT and 0.1% BSA for reactivation. Antibodies against Yersinia spp. and hepatitis E virus (HEV) were detected in swine sera on one immunochip over 4 days and 25 measurement cycles. Each cycle took 10 min for detection and regeneration. By using the rAg microarray chip, a fast and automated screening of antibodies against pathogens in sera of slaughtered pigs would be possible for zoonosis monitoring.

Biotoxin sensing in food and environment via microchip

Biotoxin contamination in food and environmental samples has threatened health or life of human and animals. Thus, a rapid lab-independent sensing method for biotoxin determination is urgently required. Microchip sensing system allows a promising rapid and low-cost detection strategy. Herein, the recent development of various microchips, including microfluidic chip and microarray, has been discussed to sense various biotoxins in food and environmental samples (i.e. phytotoxin, animal toxin, marine toxin, and mycotoxin). Microchip can be served as both analyte transportation and sensing platform, via either labeling or labeling-free sensing strategy. Because of its fast sensing time, low sample consumption, ready portability, and high compatibility, it has been extensively employed in biotoxin determination in both academic and industrial circle. With the advances of fabrication strategies and sensing modes, the microchip performance has been dramatically improved, including sensitivity, efficiency, reliability, stability, cost saving, portability. The potential applications can be found wide spread in biotoxin sensing in the near future, while their practical application in real sample need to be addressed.

Oligonucleotide microarray chip for the quantification of MS2, ΦX174, and adenoviruses on the multiplex analysis platform MCR 3

Pathogenic viruses are emerging contaminants in water which should be analyzed for water safety to preserve public health. A strategy was developed to quantify RNA and DNA viruses in parallel on chemiluminescence flow-through oligonucleotide microarrays. In order to show the proof of principle, bacteriophage MS2, ΦX174, and the human pathogenic adenovirus type 2 (hAdV2) were analyzed in spiked tap water samples on the analysis platform MCR 3. The chemiluminescence microarray imaging unit was equipped with a Peltier heater for a controlled heating of the flow cell. The efficiency and selectivity of DNA hybridization could be increased resulting in higher signal intensities and lower cross-reactivities of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products from other viruses. The total analysis time for DNA/RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis for RNA viruses, polymerase chain reaction, single-strand separation, and oligonucleotide microarray analysis was performed in 4-4.5 h. The parallel quantification was possible in a concentration range of 9.6 × 10(5)-1.4 × 10(10) genomic units (GU)/mL for bacteriophage MS2, 1.4 × 10(5)-3.7 × 10(8) GU/mL for bacteriophage ΦX174, and 6.5 × 10(3)-1.2 × 10(5) for hAdV2, respectively, by using a measuring temperature of 40 °C. Detection limits could be calculated to 6.6 × 10(5) GU/mL for MS2, 5.3 × 10(3) GU/mL for ΦX174, and 1.5 × 10(2) GU/mL for hAdV2, respectively. Real samples of surface water and treated wastewater were tested. Generally, found concentrations of hAdV2, bacteriophage MS2, and ΦX174 were at the detection limit. Nevertheless, bacteriophages could be identified with similar results by means of quantitative PCR and oligonucleotide microarray analysis on the MCR 3.

Rapid and simultaneous detection of ricin, staphylococcal enterotoxin B and saxitoxin by chemiluminescence-based microarray immunoassay

Simultaneous detection of proteotoxins, ricin and SEB, and small toxin, STX, on a chemiluminescence-based microarray using anti-idiotypic antibody for STX.