Abstract

Found in virtually every organism, glycans are essential molecules that play important roles in almost every aspect of biology. The composition of glycome, the repertoire of glycans in an organism or a biological sample, is often found altered in many diseases, including cancer, infectious diseases, metabolic and developmental disorders. Understanding how glycosylation and glycomic changes enriches our knowledge of the mechanisms of disease progression and sheds light on the development of novel therapeutics. However, the inherent diversity of glycan structures imposes challenges on the experimental characterization of glycomes. Advances in high-throughput glycomic technologies enable glycomic analysis in a rapid and comprehensive manner. In this review, we discuss the analytical methods currently used in high-throughput glycomics, including mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography and lectin microarray. Concomitant with the technical advances is the integration of glycomics into systems biology in the recent years. Herein we elaborate on some representative works from this recent trend to underline the important role of glycomics in such integrated approaches to disease.

摘要

聚糖几乎存在于每个生物体中，是必不可少的分子，在生物学的几乎每个方面都发挥着重要作用。糖组的组成，即生物体或生物样品中聚糖的全部成分，经常在许多疾病中发生改变，包括癌症、传染病、代谢和发育障碍。了解糖基化和糖组学变化如何丰富我们对疾病进展机制的了解，并为新疗法的开发提供线索。然而，聚糖结构固有的多样性给糖组的实验表征带来了挑战。高通量糖组学技术的进步使糖组学分析能够以快速和全面的方式进行。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了目前用于高通量糖组学的分析方法，包括质谱、液相色谱和凝集素微阵列。伴随着技术进步的是近年来将糖组学整合到系统生物学中。在此，我们详细阐述了这一近期趋势中的一些代表性工作，以强调糖组学在此类疾病综合方法中的重要作用。