Role of lectin microarrays in cancer diagnosis

• Published in: Proteomics (Weinheim) Vol. 16; no. 8; pp. 1257 - 1265
• Main Authors: Syed, Parvez, Gidwani, Kamlesh, Kekki, Henna, Leivo, Janne, Pettersson, Kim, Lamminmäki, Urpo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2016; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Cancer; Cancer biomarkers; Cell differentiation; Diagnosis; Differentiation (biology); Glycan; Glycans; Glycolipids; Glycoproteins; Glycoproteins - metabolism; Glycosylation; High-performance liquid chromatography; Humans; Lectin microarray; Lectins; Lectins - metabolism; Liquid chromatography; Markers; Medical diagnosis; Neoplasms - diagnosis; Neoplasms - metabolism; Polysaccharides - metabolism; Protein Array Analysis - methods; Protein arrays; Protein Binding; Proteomics - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tumor markers; Cancer biomarkers; Lectins; Lectin microarray; Protein arrays; Glycans; Glycoproteins
• ISSN: 1615-9853; 1615-9861
• DOI: 10.1002/pmic.201500404

The majority of cell differentiation associated tumor markers reported to date are either glycoproteins or glycolipids. Despite there being a large number of glycoproteins reported as candidate markers for various cancers, only a handful are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Lectins, which bind to the glycan part of the glycoproteins, can be exploited to identify aberrant glycosylation patterns, which in turn would help in enhancing the specificity of cancer diagnosis. Although conventional techniques such as HPLC and MS have been instrumental in performing the glycomic analyses, these techniques lack multiplexity. Lectin microarrays have proved to be useful in studying multiple lectin–glycan interactions in a single experiment and, with the advances made in the field, hold a promise of enabling glycomic profiling of cancers in a fast and efficient manner.