N-glycosylation analysis of human alpha-1-acid glycoprotein LC-MS

Alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) is an acute phase glycoprotein in blood, which is primarily synthetized in the liver and whose biological role is not completely understood. It consists 45% of carbohydrates attached in the form of five N-linked complex glycans. AGP N-glycosylation was shown to be changed in many different diseases and some changes appear to be disease-specific, thus it has a great diagnostic and prognostic potential. However, AGP glycosylation was mainly analyzed in small cohorts and without detailed site-specific glycan information. Here, we developed a cost-effective method for a high-throughput and site-specific N-glycosylation LC-MS analysis of AGP which can be applied on large cohorts, aid in search for novel disease biomarkers and enable better understanding of AGP’s role and function in health and disease.