Role of lectin microarrays in cancer diagnosis

Abstract

The majority of cell differentiation associated tumor markers reported to date are either glycoproteins or glycolipids. Despite there being a large number of glycoproteins reported as candidate markers for various cancers, only a handful are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Lectins, which bind to the glycan part of the glycoproteins, can be exploited to identify aberrant glycosylation patterns, which in turn would help in enhancing the specificity of cancer diagnosis. Although conventional techniques such as HPLC and MS have been instrumental in performing the glycomic analyses, these techniques lack multiplexity. Lectin microarrays have proved to be useful in studying multiple lectin-glycan interactions in a single experiment and, with the advances made in the field, hold a promise of enabling glycomic profiling of cancers in a fast and efficient manner.

Recent Advances in the Mass Spectrometry Methods for Glycomics and Cancer

“…87 Coupled with mass spectrometry via in-situ proteolysis, it provides more specific determination of proteins. 88 Lectin magnetic beads present an alternative form of the spatial arrays.…”

Glycopatterns of Urinary Protein as New Potential Diagnosis Indicators for Diabetic Nephropathy

“…Abnormal glycosylation had demonstrated correlation with occurrence and development of diseases [10, 11]. Lectin microarray is a powerful technology that uses a panel of lectins immobilized on solid phase substrate for high-throughput analysis of glycans and glycoproteins related to diseases such as cancer and inflammatory diseases [12–14]. Alterations of sialylated MUC1 glycosylation detected by lectin microarray could be indispensable for the development of cholangiocarcinoma [15].…”

A standardized method for lectin microarray-based tissue glycome mapping

“…Such features make lectin microarrays suitable for the initial detection of glycome differences in biological samples, although it yields less detailed structural information. Currently, lectin microarray has proven useful in assessing the characteristics of tumors and for screening novel biomarkers for cancer diagnosis33. Based on highly sensitive evanescent-field fluorescence-assisted lectin microarray34, we have established a feasible method for differential glycan profiling targeting very small regions (i.e., “one-dot” sections comprising about 1000 cells) on FFPE tissue sections after delipidation3536, and identified Wisteria floribunda agglutinin (WFA) as the most reliable lectin probe to detect cholangiocarcinoma-specific glyco-alterations37.…”