Nature Methods

A simplified strategy for modifying complex sugar molecules, described in the November issue of Nature Methods, could dramatically increase the ease and speed with which scientists tackle important issues relating to tumor detection and the pathology of infectious diseases.

Just like clothes make the man, what a protein wears can dramatically alter how it is recognized. Many proteins, particularly those at the surface of cells, have their appearance sweetened by the addition of elaborate sugars. Among other things, these sugars can play an important role in communication between cells, serve as docking pads for bacteria or viruses, or provide clinically useful markers for cancer detection.

From this, the relatively new-but rapidly growing-field of glycomics has emerged, exploring which proteins are modified with which sugars, and what the implications of those modifications are. This often involves synthesizing different sugars and examining how they interact with different proteins. Unfortunately, this is a tedious and demanding process, limiting the efficiency and scale of glycomic experiments.

In their latest work, Richard D. Cummings and colleagues describe a highly efficient chemical process for the rapid generation of modifiable sugar molecules. Sugars prepared by this process are linked with a fluorescent molecule that makes them easier to work with and detect, and they can readily be assembled onto arrays for high-throughput analysis. This strategy is suitable for use with a broad variety of naturally occuring and commercially available sugars, and the authors believe that their approach should provide greater flexibility and efficiency for glycomics researchers, and make high-throughput functional studies easier and more informative.

CONTACT
Richard D. Cummings (University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA)
Tel: +1 405 271 2481; Email: richard-cummings@ouhsc.edu

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