Protein biomarkers in cancer: natural glycoprotein microarray approaches

Protein glycosylation is the most versatile and common protein modification and plays important roles in various biological processes and disease progression. In this review, the development of microarray technology for protein glycosylation analysis is described. Three types are discussed: carbohydrate, lectin and natural glycoprotein microarrays. The advantages of microarray technology to study protein glycosylation are high-volume throughput coupled with a highly miniaturized platform. These techniques show great promise for detecting interactions that involve carbohydrates and as a screening tool to detect glycan patterns important for the early diagnosis of disease.