Differential Chemical Derivatization Integrated with Chromatographic Separation for Analysis of Isomeric Sialylated N-Glycans: a Nano-HILIC-MS Platform

摘要

DMT-MM/methanol mediated derivatization of sialic acid residues in a linkage specific manner was shown to significantly increase the separation efficiency in HILIC analysis of 2-AB labeled N-glycans. In addition, CID MS/MS fragmentation of tri-antennary complex N-glycans generated product ions carrying differential mass values indicative of antennary composition of the precursor ions. The developed platform was applied to the discovery of potential cancer specific alterations in the relative abundance of tri-sialylated N-glycans in plasma. Out of five different cancers studied, pancreatic cancer represented the highest degree of specificity in terms of its glycan contents.