Assessment of Immunologically Potent Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates have a great potential in generating structural and immunological diversities. Microbial pathogens often decorate their outmost surfaces with specific carbohydrate signatures. Carbohydrate antigens also differ significantly from protein antigens in physiochemical properties, especially in surface display of antigenic determinants in aqueous solutions. Technical optimization or modifications are often needed when we apply standard procedures for protein-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assess immunologically potent carbohydrates. We present here our laboratory protocols for performing carbohydrate ELISA and discuss several assay platforms that may be applied complementarily to explore the carbohydrate moieties that are critical for host immune recognition and induction of glycan-specific antibody responses.