Utilizing Liquid Chromatography, Ion Mobility Spectrometry, and Mass Spectrometry to Assess INLIGHT^™ Derivatized N-Linked Glycans in Biological Samples

Butler, K.E.; Kalmar, J.G.; Muddiman, D.C.; et al.

Glycosylation is a prevalent co-/post-translation modification in biological systems that putatively links to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Efforts to unravel this relationship and understand glycan structure/function have been forged but have been hampered by methodological and analytical challenges. To help address the limitations, Baker and colleagues applied the INLIGHT™ strategy to a novel instrument platform (nanoLC-IM-MS). The combination of light and ¹³C₆-labeled phenyl-2GPN INLIGHT tags (kit catalog no. GTK-1000) with multidimensional analytics enabled the deep characterization of N-glycans in simple (individual glycoproteins) and complex (human plasma) samples. The developed approach is rapid and accurate, delivering the confidence needed to qualitatively/quantitatively assess and annotate N-linked glycans in diverse sample types.