Relative Quantification and Higher-Order Modeling of the Plasma Glycan Cancer Burden Ratio in Ovarian Cancer Case-Control Samples.

An early-stage, population-wide biomarker for ovarian cancer (OVC) is essential to reverse its high mortality rate. Aberrant glycosylation by OVC has been reported, but studies have yet to identify an N-glycan with sufficiently high specificity. We curated a human biorepository of 82 case-control plasma samples, with 27%, 12%, 46%, and 15% falling across stages I-IV, respectively.

Individuality Normalization when Labeling with Isotopic Glycan Hydrazide Tags (INLIGHT): a novel glycan-relative quantification strategy.

The Individuality Normalization when Labeling with Isotopic Glycan Hydrazide Tags (INLIGHT) strategy for the sample preparation, data analysis, and relative quantification of N-linked glycans is presented. Glycans are derivatized with either natural (L) or stable-isotope labeled (H) hydrazide reagents and analyzed using reversed phase liquid chromatography coupled online to a Q Exactive mass spectrometer. A simple glycan ladder, maltodextrin, is first used to demonstrate the relative quantification strategy in samples with negligible analytical and biological variability.

The use of a xylosylated plant glycoprotein as an internal standard accounting for N-linked glycan cleavage and sample preparation variability.

Rationale: Traditionally, free oligosaccharide internal standards are used to account for variability in glycan relative quantification experiments by mass spectrometry. However, a more suitable internal standard would be a glycoprotein, which could also control for enzymatic cleavage efficiency, allowing for more accurate quantitative experiments.

Methods: Hydrophobic, hydrazide N-linked glycan reagents (both native and stable-isotope labeled) are used to derivatize and differentially label N-linked glycan samples for relative quantification, and the samples are analyzed by a reversed-phase liquid chromatography chip system coupled online to a Q-Exactive mass spectrometer.