Robust assays for the isolation and characterization of urinary FOS (free oligosaccharides) have been developed to screen patients for altered protein and/or lipid glycosylation. A FOS analysis can therefore identify potential biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma, since variations in glycosylation as a result of tumorigenecity should be detectable in the FOS of patients. HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) accounts for 80–90% of all liver cancers. It occurs more often in men than women and occurs mostly in people 50–60 years old. The disease is more common in parts of Africa and Asia than in North or South America and Europe. Using a combination of solid-phase extraction techniques and affinity chromatography, followed by separation of urinary FOS by NP (normal phase)-HPLC and HIAX (hydrophilic interaction and anion-exchange)-HPLC, more than 200 different species have been identified in patient samples. The high incidence of small sialylated oligosaccharides in HCC patients suggests that pro-inflammatory markers may be detected as early indicators of disease progression. In addition, the methods developed here to isolate and analyse excreted glycoprotein- and glycosphingolipid-bound oligosaccharides have been used to characterize changes in metabolic processes that underlie a number of human genetic disorders. The ability to predict disease status in microlitre amounts of readily available non-invasive urine samples indicates that rapid methods for screening can be developed.
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February 2011
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Conference Article|
January 19 2011
Urinary glycan markers for disease
Dominic S. Alonzi;
Dominic S. Alonzi
*Oxford Glycobiology Institute, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, U.K.
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Ying-Hsiu Su;
Ying-Hsiu Su
†Department of Microbiology/Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, 3805 Old Easton Road, Doylestown, PA 18901, U.S.A.
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Terry D. Butters
Terry D. Butters
*Oxford Glycobiology Institute, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, U.K.
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
September 08 2010
Online ISSN: 1470-8752
Print ISSN: 0300-5127
© The Authors Journal compilation © 2011 Biochemical Society
2011
Biochem Soc Trans (2011) 39 (1): 393–398.
Article history
Received:
September 08 2010
Citation
Dominic S. Alonzi, Ying-Hsiu Su, Terry D. Butters; Urinary glycan markers for disease. Biochem Soc Trans 1 February 2011; 39 (1): 393–398. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST0390393
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