A Highly Efficient and Visualized Method for Glycan Enrichment by Self-Assembling Pyrene Derivative Functionalized Free Graphene Oxide

Protein glycosylation plays key roles in many biological processes, such as cell growth, differentiation, and cell–cell recognition. Therefore, global structure profiling of glycans is very important for investigating the biological significance and roles of glycans in disease occurrence and development. Mass spectrometry (MS) is currently the most powerful technique for structure analysis of oligosaccharides, but the limited availability of glycan/glycoproteins from natural sources restricts the wide adoption of this technique in large-scale glycan profiling. Though various enrichment methods have been developed, most methods relay on the weak physical affinity between glycans and adsorbents that yields insufficient enrichment efficiency. Furthermore, the lack of monitoring the extent/completeness of enrichment may lead to incomplete enrichment unless repeated sample loading and prolonged incubation are adopted, which limits sample handling throughput. Here, we report a rapid, highly efficient, and visua...