Cloaking the ACE2 receptor with salivary cationic proteins inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry.

Saliva contributes to the innate immune system, which suggests that it can prevent SARS-CoV-2 entry. We studied the ability of healthy salivary proteins to bind to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) using biolayer interferometry and pull-down assays. Their effects on binding between the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 (S1) and ACE2 were determined using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Fetal Environment and Glycosylation Status in Neonatal Cord Blood: A Comprehensive Mass Spectrometry-based Glycosylation Analysis.

Fetal environment is known to be a major predictive factor of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, associations of fetal environment and cord blood glycoforms are uncertain. In this study, we aimed to determine whether glycosylation status in neonatal cord blood is associated with perinatal outcomes reflecting a poor fetal environment.

Glycoblotting method allows for rapid and efficient glycome profiling of human Alzheimer's disease brain, serum and cerebrospinal fluid towards potential biomarker discovery.

Background: Understanding of the significance of posttranslational glycosylation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is of growing importance for the investigation of the pathogenesis of AD as well as discovery research of the disease-specific serum biomarkers.

Methods: We designed a standard protocol for the glycoblotting combined with MALDI-TOFMS to perform rapid and quantitative profiling of the glycan parts of glycoproteins (N-glycans) and glycosphingolipids (GSLs) using human AD's post-mortem samples such as brain tissues (dissected cerebral cortices such as frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal domains), serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Results: The structural profiles of the major N-glycans released from glycoproteins and the total expression levels of the glycans were found to be mostly similar between the brain tissues of the AD patients and those of the normal control group.

Large-Scale Glycomics of Livestock: Discovery of Highly Sensitive Serum Biomarkers Indicating an Environmental Stress Affecting Immune Responses and Productivity of Holstein Dairy Cows.

Because various stresses strongly influence the food productivity of livestock, biomarkers to indicate unmeasurable environmental stress in domestic animals are of increasing importance. Thermal comfort is one of the basic principles of dairy cow welfare that enhances productivity. To discover sensitive biomarkers that monitor such environmental stresses in dairy cows, we herein performed, for the first time, large-scale glycomics on 336 lactating Holstein cow serum samples over 9 months between February and October.

Alteration of N-Glycan Profiles in Diabetic Retinopathy.

Purpose: To investigate the alteration of vitreal N-glycans in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).

Methods: Plasma and vitreous samples were collected from 17 patients (10 females and 7 males) with PDR (PDR group) and 17 nondiabetic patients (8 females and 9 males) with epiretinal membrane (ERM) and idiopathic macular hole (MH) (non-diabetes mellitus [DM] group). Profiles of N-glycans were analyzed by a glycoblotting-based high-throughput protocol that we recently developed.

A comprehensive glycome profiling of Huntington's disease transgenic mice.

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal, dominantly inherited and progressive neurodegenerative disease, nosologically classified as the presence of intranuclear inclusion bodies and the loss of GABA-containing neurons in the neostriatum and subsequently in the cerebellar cortex. Abnormal processing of neuronal proteins can result in the misfolding of proteins and altered post-translational modification of newly synthesized proteins. Total glycomics, namely, N-glycomics, O-glycomics, and glycosphingolipidomics (GSL-omics) of HD transgenic mice would be a hallmark for central nervous system disorders in order to discover disease specific biomarkers.

Serum tri- and tetra-antennary N-glycan is a potential predictive biomarker for castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Background: The U.S. FDA has approved several novel systemic agents including abiraterone acetate and taxoid cabazitaxel for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) result in a complicated decision-making while selecting an appropriate treatment.

A comparison of N-glycan profiles in human plasma and vitreous fluid.

Purpose: To investigate the concentration and composition of N-glycans in plasma and vitreous samples obtained from patients with non-proliferative vitreoretinal diseases.

Methods: Plasma and vitreous samples were collected from 11 patients with idiopathic macular hole (MH) and 9 patients with epiretinal membrane (ERM). The samples were pretreated for enzymatic cleaving, and subsequently glycans released from proteins were captured on BlotGlyco H beads.