We are pleased to announce that a research team led by glyXera GmbH, in collaboration with New England Biolabs, University Hospital Magdeburg, and the Max Planck Institute Magdeburg, successfully published a pioneering study in Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences with the title “Raider of the lost N-glycans – Localizing rare and frequently overlooked IgG N-glycans with sulfation or bisecting LacNAc”.
Antibody glycosylation is an immensely important research area of great interest, both in terms of recombinant biotherapeutics and native antibodies in the body. The latter in particular are popular targets for finding glycan-based biomarkers, e.g. for cancer, autoimmune diseases, well-being, and other medical conditions.
In this study, a combination of affinity chromatography-based capture, proteolytic fragmentation, and multiplexed capillary gel electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence (xCGE-LIF) was used to perform an in-depth analysis of N-glycans from intact IgG as well as its Fab and Fc regions. Consequently, low abundant glycans with special features were unveiled, including the bisecting LacNAc motif and sulfation. These structures have been overlooked in analyses of IgG N-glycans for years. Notably, the sulfation of N-glycans was proven with an apo-sulfatase, provided by our partner New England Biolabs, in an epitope-directed glycan enrichment (EDGE) profiling workflow.
These insights not only contribute to advancing our understanding of IgG glycosylation, but also demonstrate the unique analytical power and efficiency of glyXera’s xCGE-LIF technology for complex glycomic studies. Based upon these results, the xCGE-LIF platform can set new standards in straightforward, high-throughput glycan analysis that allows a confident and time efficient examination even of such low abundant and otherwise difficult to identify N-glycans.
The article is published open access and can be read in full on the publication web page: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2025.1593708
If you would like to learn more about our high-performance glycan analysis products, including glyXboxCE, or are interested in a research cooperation, please feel free to get in touch.