Cancer is one of the most common causes of death in the world [1]. Early diagnosis is necessary to save the patient's life, therefore it is important to focus on developing new sensitive diagnostic methods. Glycans perform many important functions in the body. In many types of cancer (prostate, stomach, colon, lungs ...) aberrant glycans are produced in the cell, to which the immune system responds by producing autoantibodies. Such antibodies may be present in the blood before the clinical signs of the disease and they are potential biomarkers of cancer at an early stage [2]. In this work, we focused on the preparation of various glycan surfaces used for the detection of autoantibodies to aberrant glycan structures.
We focused on optimizing the conditions in the preparation of a glycan biosensor sensitive to anti-Tn antibody and lectin Dolichos Biflorus Agglutinin (DBA). The main electrochemical method for determining glycan-protein interactions was differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The developed biosensor detected an analyte with high selectivity and sensitivity at the atomolar level (1 aM) [3].
In this work, we focused on the development of a new test based on magnetic particles (SUMBA) for the detection of antibodies against aberrant glycans. The SUMBA method has been optimized to be able to recognize aberrant glycans attached to a BSA protein backbone that functions as a molecular nanocarrier of small glycan structures. The entire SUMBA was optimized using analytical techniques such as surface plasmon resonance. Using the SUMBA method, we were able to detect antiglycan antibodies ultrasensitive with a detection limit at the picomolar level (0,45 pM) [4].