Glycan arrays, like that offered by the

Consortium for Functional Glycomics The Consortium for Functional Glycomics (CFG) is a large research initiative funded in 2001 by a glue grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to “define paradigms by which protein- carbohydrate interactions medi ...

(CFG), National Center for Functional Glycomics (NCFG) an
Z Biotech, LLC
contain carbohydrate compounds that can be screened with lectins, antibodies or cell receptors to define carbohydrate specificity and identify ligands. Glycan array screening works in much the same way as other microarray that is used for instance to study gene expression

DNA microarrays A DNA microarray (also commonly known as DNA chip or biochip) is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface. Scientists use DNA microarrays to measure the expression levels of large numbers of genes simultaneously or to ...

or protein interaction

Protein microarray A protein microarray (or protein chip) is a high-throughput method used to track the interactions and activities of proteins, and to determine their function, and determining function on a large scale. Its main advantage lies in the fact that larg ...

s. Glycan arrays are composed of various

oligosaccharides An oligosaccharide (/ˌɑlɪgoʊˈsækəˌɹaɪd/; from the Greek ὀλίγος ''olígos'', "a few", and σάκχαρ ''sácchar'', "sugar") is a saccharide polymer containing a small number (typically two to ten) of monosaccharides (simple sug ...

and/or

polysaccharides Polysaccharides (), or polycarbohydrates, are the most abundant carbohydrates found in food. They are long chain polymeric carbohydrates composed of monosaccharide units bound together by glycosidic linkages. This carbohydrate can react with w ...

immobilised on a solid support in a spatially-defined arrangement. This technology provides the means of studying glycan-protein interactions in a high-throughput environment. These natural or synthetic (see

carbohydrate synthesis Carbohydrate synthesis is a sub-field of organic chemistry concerned specifically with the generation of natural and unnatural carbohydrate structures. This can include the synthesis of monosaccharide residues or structures containing more than on ...

) glycans are then incubated with any glycan-binding protein such as

lectin Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are highly specific for sugar groups that are part of other molecules, so cause agglutination of particular cells or precipitation of glycoconjugates and polysaccharides. Lectins have a role in rec ...

cell surface receptor Cell surface receptors (membrane receptors, transmembrane receptors) are receptors that are embedded in the plasma membrane of cells. They act in cell signaling by receiving (binding to) extracellular molecules. They are specialized integr ...

s or possibly a whole organism such as a

virus A virus is a wikt:submicroscopic, submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and ...

. Binding is quantified using fluorescence-based detection methods.

Applications

The glycan array technology has been and still is applied to study the specificity of host-pathogen interactions. Early on, glycan arrays were proven useful in determining the specificity of the

Hemagglutinin (influenza) Influenza hemagglutinin (HA) or haemagglutinin ">/sup> (British English) is a homotrimeric glycoprotein found on the surface of influenza viruses and is integral to its infectivity. Hemagglutinin is a Class I Fusion Protein, having multifunc ...

of the

Influenza A virus '' A virus'' (''IAV'') causes influenza in birds and some mammals, and is the only species of the genus ''Alphainfluenzavirus'' of the virus family '' Orthomyxoviridae''. Strains of all subtypes of influenza A virus have been isolated from wil ...

binding to the host and distinguishing across different strains of flu (including avian from mammalian). This was shown with CFG arrays as well as customised arrays. Cross-platform benchmarks led to highlight the effect of glycan presentation and spacing on binding. Glycan arrays are possibly combined with other techniques such as

Surface Plasmon Resonance Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is the resonant oscillation of conduction electrons at the interface between negative and positive permittivity material in a particle stimulated by incident light. SPR is the basis of many standard tools for measu ...

(SPR) to refine the characterisation of glycan-binding. For example, this combination led to demonstrate the calcium-dependent heparin binding of

Annexin A1 Annexin A1, also known as lipocortin I, is a protein that is encoded by the ''ANXA1'' gene in humans. Function Annexin A1 belongs to the annexin family of Ca2+-dependent phospholipid-binding proteins that have a molecular weight of approximat ...

that is involved in several biological processes including

inflammation Inflammation (from la, wikt:en:inflammatio#Latin, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or Irritation, irritants, and is a protective response involving im ...

, apoptosis and

membrane trafficking Membrane vesicle trafficking in eukaryotic animal cells involves movement of biochemical signal molecules from synthesis-and-packaging locations in the Golgi body to specific release locations on the inside of the plasma membrane of the secretory ...

References

{{Reflist Microarrays Glycobiology Glycomics Carbohydrates