Exploiting glycan arrays and biosensors to diagnose and understand diseases

Ae Sol Lee; Hye Ryoung Heo; Young Hoon Song; Chang Sup Kim; Jeong Hyun Seo; Hyung Joon Cha

doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2025.108635

Exploiting glycan arrays and biosensors to diagnose and understand diseases

Biotechnol Adv. 2025 Jun 28:83:108635. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2025.108635. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ae Sol Lee¹, Hye Ryoung Heo², Young Hoon Song³, Chang Sup Kim⁴, Jeong Hyun Seo⁵, Hyung Joon Cha⁶

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Chemical Engineering, Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Graduate School of Chemical Engineering, Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea; Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: biocskim@dgu.ac.kr.
⁵ School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: jhseo78@yu.ac.kr.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea; Medical Science and Engineering, School of Convergence Science and Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 37673, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hjcha@postech.ac.kr.

PMID: 40588045
DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2025.108635

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.

Keywords: Biomedical applications; Diseases; Glycan arrays; Glycan biosensors; Glycan immobilization; Glycan sources.

Publication types

Review