Exploiting glycan arrays and biosensors to diagnose and understand diseases

Abstract

Aberrant glycosylation patterns, often observed in disease states compared to those in normal states, are involved in disease-related processes such as cancer cell development and metastasis. Analyzing glycan-associated interactions could provide promising avenues for disease detection and therapeutic development. Over the past two decades, glycan arrays and biosensors have become powerful analytical tools for characterizing glycan-associated interactions, screening functional glycans, and detecting glycan-related diseases. This review aims to describe glycan source preparation and immobilization methods used to construct glycan arrays and biosensors. We summarize methods for obtaining glycans from natural sources and for chemical and enzymatic synthesis. In particular, we cover a method of immobilizing DNA, proteins, and lipids that mimic cell-surface glycoconjugates. Finally, we discuss the biomedical applications of glycan arrays and biosensors, including identification of cancer-specific glycan biomarkers, evaluation of glycan-induced antibody responses in cancer, cancer detection, analysis of glycan-binding specificities of pathogens and their toxins, pathogen detection, and drug discovery. © 2025 Elsevier Inc.