Synthesis of zwitterionic polymer modified graphene oxide for hydrophilic enrichment of N-glycopeptides from urine of healthy subjects and patients with lung adenocarcinoma

• Published in: Talanta (Oxford) Vol. 237; p. 122938
• Main Authors: Bai, Haihong, Zhang, Baoying, Cheng, Xiaoqiang, Liu, Ju, Wang, Xinghe, Qin, Weijie, Zhang, Man
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 15.01.2022
• Subjects: adenocarcinoma; biomarkers; drugs; Enrichment; glycoproteins; glycosylation; Graphene oxide; humans; Hydrophilic interaction; hydrophilicity; lungs; mass spectrometry; N-glycoproteome; polymers; therapeutics; urine; zwitterions; Enrichment; Hydrophilic interaction; Graphene oxide; N-glycoproteome
• ISSN: 0039-9140; 1873-3573; 1873-3573
• DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122938

As one of the most common and important post-translational modifications, protein N-glycosylation plays essential roles in many biological processes and have long been considered closely correlated with the occurrence and progression of multiple diseases. Systematic characterization of these disease-related protein N-glycosylation is one of the most convenient ways for new diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic drug target discovering. However, the biological samples are extremely complex and the abundance of N-glycoproteins are especially low, which make highly efficient N-glycoprotein/glycopeptide enrichment before mass spectrometry analysis a prerequisite. In this work, a new type of hydrophilic material (GO-pDMAPS) was prepared by in situ growth of linear zwitterionic polymer chains on the surface of GO and it was successfully applied for N-glycopeptide enrichment from human urine. Due to the excellent hydrophilicity and the facilitate interactions between this GO-pDMAPS and the targets, a total of 1426 N-glycosylated sites corresponding to 766 N-glycoproteins as well as 790 N-glycosylation sites corresponding to 470 N-glycoproteins were enriched and identified from urine of healthy subjects and patients with lung adenocarcinoma, respectively. Among which, 27 N-glycoproteins were expressed exclusively and 4 N-glycoproteins were upregulated at least 3 times comparing with the healthy group, demonstrating the tremendous potential of this new hydrophilic material for large scale and in depth N-glycoproteome research. [Display omitted] •A zwitterionic polymer grafted graphene oxide (GO-pDMAPS) was fabricated for hydrophilic enrichment of N-glycopeptides.•Densely attached of linear and hydrophilic polymer on GO provide more convenience for N-glycopeptide capturing.•The deeper coverage of urinary glycoproteome was achieved by using the GO-pDMAPS comparing with the commercial material.