Open AccessClinically Viable Assay for Monitoring Uromodulin Glycosylation
Author(s) -
Milani Wijeweera Patabandige,
Eden P. Go,
Heather Desaire
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of the american society for mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.961
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1879-1123
pISSN - 1044-0305
DOI - 10.1021/jasms.0c00317
Subject(s) - glycomics , tamm–horsfall protein , chemistry , glycosylation , glycan , biomarker discovery , glycoprotein , computational biology , glycoproteomics , capillary electrophoresis , biochemistry , proteomics , chromatography , urine , biology , gene
Uromodulin, also known as the Tamm-Horsfall protein or THP, is the most abundant protein excreted in human urine. It is associated with the progression of kidney diseases; therefore, changes in the glycosylation profile of this protein could serve as a potential biomarker for kidney health. The typical glycomics analysis approaches used to quantify uromodulin glycosylation involve time-consuming and tedious glycoprotein isolation and labeling steps, which limit their utility in clinical glycomics assays, where sample throughput is important. Herein, we introduce a radically simplified sample preparation workflow, with direct ESI-MS analysis, enabling the quantification of N-linked glycans that originate from uromodulin. The method omits any glycan labeling steps but includes steps to reduce the salt content of the samples, thereby minimizing ion suppression. The method is effective for quantifying subtle glycosylation differences of uromodulin samples derived from different biological states. As a proof of concept, glycosylation from samples that differ by pregnancy status were shown to be differentiable.