Content of research

Glycan patterns on glycoproteins are important biomarkers because they are factors that determine the disposition of protein in the body. Until now, glycan pattern analysis has required complicated operations such as cutting, chemical modification, and purification of glycans. Mass spectrometry is an ultra-sensitive and high-resolution analytical technique that can directly ionize trace amounts of biomolecules. However, there has not been a method to selectively ionize glycoconjugates such as glycoproteins and glycans in complex macromolecules and mixtures such as body fluids, which requires the complicated pretreatment described above. We have achieved the world's first simultaneous selective cleavage and selective ionization of glycoconjugate glycans, and succeeded in the direct analysis of glycan patterns on glycoproteins. We have also demonstrated that this technique can be used to directly analyze glycan patterns in complex mixtures such as egg white.

Potential for social implementation

• Rapid quality control of glycoprotein formulations, rapid diagnosis, rapid quality control, carbohydrate resource exploration, carbohydrate resource development

Appealing points to industry and local governments

The analysis of higher-order functions of carbohydrate components has been avoided due to the high cost of analysis and difficulty to interpret. This new technology will make it easier to explore this undeveloped area, at least in terms of analytical cost and especially time cost. We hope that this new technology will contribute to the development and utilization of carbohydrate resources such as those produced in Hokkaido.