Native N-glycome profiling of single cells and ng-level blood isolates using label-free capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry.

The development of reliable single-cell dispensers and substantial sensitivity improvement in mass spectrometry made proteomic profiling of individual cells achievable. Yet, there are no established methods for single-cell glycome analysis due to the inability to amplify glycans and sample losses associated with sample processing and glycan labeling. In this work, we present an integrated platform coupling online in-capillary sample processing with high-sensitivity label-free capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for N-glycan profiling of single mammalian cells.

Native Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry of Near 1 MDa Non-Covalent GroEL/GroES/Substrate Protein Complexes.

Protein complexes are essential for proteins' folding and biological function. Currently, native analysis of large multimeric protein complexes remains challenging. Structural biology techniques are time-consuming and often cannot monitor the proteins' dynamics in solution.

In-capillary sample processing coupled to label-free capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry to decipher the native N-glycome of single mammalian cells and ng-level blood isolates.

The development of reliable single-cell dispensers and substantial sensitivity improvement in mass spectrometry made proteomic profiling of individual cells achievable. Yet, there are no established methods for single-cell glycome analysis due to the inability to amplify glycans and sample losses associated with sample processing and glycan labeling. In this work, we developed an integrated platform coupling online in-capillary sample processing with high-sensitivity label-free capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for N-glycan profiling of single mammalian cells.

Highly-sensitive label-free deep profiling of N-glycans released from biomedically-relevant samples.

Alterations of protein glycosylation can serve as sensitive and specific disease biomarkers. Labeling procedures for improved separation and detectability of oligosaccharides have several drawbacks, including incomplete derivatization, side-products, noticeable desialylation/defucosylation, sample loss, and interference with downstream analyses. Here, we develop a label-free workflow based on high sensitivity capillary zone electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CZE-MS) for profiling of native underivatized released N-glycans.

High-Sensitivity Glycan Profiling of Blood-Derived Immunoglobulin G, Plasma, and Extracellular Vesicle Isolates with Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry.

We developed a highly sensitive method for profiling of N-glycans released from proteins based on capillary zone electrophoresis coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (CZE-ESI-MS) and applied the technique to glycan analysis of plasma and blood-derived isolates. The combination of dopant-enriched nitrogen (DEN)-gas introduced into the nanoelectrospray microenvironment with optimized ionization, desolvation, and CZE-MS conditions improved the detection sensitivity up to ∼100-fold, as directly compared to the conventional mode of instrument operation through peak intensity measurements. Analyses without supplemental pressure increased the resolution ∼7-fold in the separation of closely related and isobaric glycans.

Characterization of conformers and dimers of antithrombin by capillary electrophoresis-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Antithrombin (AT) is a plasma glycoprotein which possesses anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties. AT exhibits various forms, among which are native, latent and heterodimeric ones. We studied the potential of capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) using a sheath liquid interface, electrospray ionization (ESI), and a quadrupole-time-of-flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometer to separate and quantify the different AT forms.

Characterization of Chemical and Physical Modifications of Human Serum Albumin by Capillary Zone Electrophoresis.

Therapeutic proteins can easily undergo chemical or physical changes during their manufacturing, purification, and storage. These modifications might change or reduce their biological activity. Therefore, it is important to have analytical methodologies that are able to reliably detect, characterize, and quantify degradation products in formulations.

A capillary zone electrophoresis method to detect conformers and dimers of antithrombin in therapeutic preparations.

Antithrombin (AT) is a human plasma glycoprotein that possesses anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the native (active) form of AT is unstable and undergoes conformational changes, leading to latent, cleaved, and heterodimeric forms. The presence of these alternative forms mostly inactive can highly impact the quality and therapeutic activity of pharmaceutical AT preparations.

A fast capillary electrophoresis method to assess the binding affinity of recombinant antithrombin toward heparin directly from cell culture supernatants.

With the aim to determine the binding affinity of a new generation of recombinant antithrombin (AT) toward heparin, we developed a dynamic equilibrium-affinity capillary electrophoresis (DE-ACE) method. This method allows the determination of an AT-heparin binding constant (Kd) directly from the cell culture supernatant used to produce the AT variants. Eight measurements per AT variant are sufficient to determine an accurate Kd (uncertainty ≤ 22%, regression coefficient ≥ 0.

Capillary zone electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for analyzing qualitative and quantitative variations in therapeutic albumin.

The present study describes a reproducible and quantitative capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method, which leads to the separation of nine forms (native, oxidized and glycated) of human serum albumin (HSA). In an attempt to identify the different species separated by this CZE method, the capillary electrophoresis was coupled to mass spectrometry using a sheath liquid interface, an optimized capillary coating and a suitable CE running buffer. CE-MS analyses confirmed the heterogeneity of albumin preparation and revealed new truncated and modified forms such as Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs).

Specific antioxidant properties of human serum albumin.

Human serum albumin (HSA) has been used for a long time as a resuscitation fluid in critically ill patients. It is known to exert several important physiological and pharmacological functions. Among them, the antioxidant properties seem to be of paramount importance as they may be implied in the potential beneficial effects that have been observed in the critical care and hepatological settings.