Versatile glycan probes for multiplatform investigation of glycan interactions with proteins, viruses, and cells
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Glycan-mediated interactions are vital to development, microbial colonisation, immune signalling, and cancer progression. Glycan microarrays have revolutionised glycobiology by enabling high-throughput analysis of these complex interactions, supported by techniques that reveal kinetics and dynamics in solution or at the cellular level. We introduce multifunctional glycan probes based on a tri-functional Fmoc-Amino-Azido (FAA) linker, enabling multi-platform investigation of glycan-mediated interactions. These FAA probes support glycan presentation on both covalent and non-covalent array platforms, allowing direct comparison of glycan recognition by diverse proteins. Notably, certain viral adhesins and immune lectins show a preference for the non-covalent platform. The azido group allows further functionalisation via ‘click chemistry’, enabling biotinylation for immobilisation on bio-layer interferometry biosensors for influenza virus binding, or fluorescent tagging for flow cytometry analysis of glycan-lectin interactions on cells. These versatile probes offer a unified platform for in-depth interrogation of glycan interactions using complementary approaches, with strong potential to advance glycan-based diagnostics and therapeutics.
Date Issued
2026-08-21
Date Acceptance
2026-06-23
Citation
Nature Communications, 2026, 17
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
17
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s41467-026-75206-2
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
8750
Date Publish Online
2026-07-17