Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
OMICS. 2010 Aug;14(4):419-36. doi: 10.1089/omi.2009.0150.
Glycomics is the study of comprehensive structural elucidation and characterization of all glycoforms found in nature and their dynamic spatiotemporal changes that are associated with biological processes. Glycocalyx of mammalian cells actively participate in cell-cell, cell-matrix, and cell-pathogen interactions, which impact embryogenesis, growth and development, homeostasis, infection and immunity, signaling, malignancy, and metabolic disorders. Relative to genomics and proteomics, glycomics is just growing out of infancy with great potential in biomedicine for biomarker discovery, diagnosis, and treatment. However, the immense diversity and complexity of glycan structures and their multiple modes of interactions with proteins pose great challenges for development of analytical tools for delineating structure function relationships and understanding glyco-code. Several tools are being developed for glycan profiling based on chromatography, mass spectrometry, glycan microarrays, and glyco-informatics. Lectins, which have long been used in glyco-immunology, printed on a microarray provide a versatile platform for rapid high throughput analysis of glycoforms of biological samples. Herein, we summarize technological advances in lectin microarrays and critically review their impact on glycomics analysis. Challenges remain in terms of expansion to include nonplant derived lectins, standardization for routine clinical use, development of recombinant lectins, and exploration of plant kingdom for discovery of novel lectins.
糖组学是研究自然界中所有糖型的综合结构阐明和特征描述，以及与生物过程相关的其动态时空变化。哺乳动物细胞的糖萼积极参与细胞-细胞、细胞-基质和细胞-病原体的相互作用，这些相互作用影响胚胎发生、生长和发育、内稳态、感染和免疫、信号转导、恶性肿瘤和代谢紊乱。与基因组学和蛋白质组学相比，糖组学刚刚走出起步阶段，在生物医学领域具有巨大的潜力，可用于发现生物标志物、诊断和治疗。然而，糖链结构的巨大多样性和复杂性及其与蛋白质相互作用的多种模式，给糖链结构功能关系的解析和糖码理解的分析工具的发展带来了巨大的挑战。目前正在开发几种基于色谱、质谱、糖芯片和糖组信息学的聚糖分析工具。凝集素长期以来一直用于糖免疫学研究，其在微阵列上的打印为快速高通量分析生物样品中的糖型提供了一个多功能平台。本文总结了凝集素微阵列的技术进展，并对其在糖组学分析中的应用进行了批判性评价。在扩展包括非植物来源的凝集素、常规临床使用的标准化、重组凝集素的开发以及探索植物界以发现新的凝集素方面，仍然存在挑战。
