Ion Chromatography coupled Mass Spectrometry (IC-MS) for Advanced Structural Characterisation of Carbohydrates

碳水化合物（或糖）在自然界中扮演着无数的角色，从能量储存和运输到细胞和组织的结构成分，再到关键的细胞信号传导和识别受体。尽管复杂碳水化合物（也称为聚糖）在生物学的各个领域都很重要，但由于自然界中存在着巨大的结构多样性，对聚糖的研究落后于其他主要生物分子，特别是蛋白质和核酸。这种多样性限制了聚糖表征的分析技术。离子交换色谱（IC）电化学检测是分离、鉴定和定量复杂碳水化合物结构的核心技术之一，因为它具有良好的分离性和灵敏度，可以在不进行任何修饰的情况下检测碳水化合物。然而，这种方法在过去受到限制，因为它依赖于确定的糖标准进行鉴定。这一限制可以通过将IC连接到质谱仪（MS）进行高级糖鉴定和表征来绕过，但直到最近这项技术才成为可能。生物科学公司ThermoFisher Ltd最近取得了令人兴奋的进展，使IC与MS直接连接，为高级碳水化合物分析创造了快速而强大的管道。IC-MS将能够定量和表征来自人类、动物、植物和微生物来源的各种复杂碳水化合物，因此具有巨大的潜力，可以改变我们分析和理解存在的巨大多样性聚糖结构的能力，并破译它们在生物学中的作用。

Carbohydrates (or sugars) play myriad roles in nature from energy storage and transport to structural components of cells and tissues to key cell signalling and recognition receptors. Despite the importance of complex carbohydrates (also known as glycans) in all areas of biology, the study of glycans has lagged behind that of the other major biomolecules, especially protein and nucleic acids, due to the vast diversity of structures that exist in nature. This diversity has limited analytical techniques for glycan characterisation. Ion exchange chromatography (IC) with electrochemical detection is one of the core techniques used to separate, identify and quantify complex carbohydrate structures as it provides excellent separation and sensitivity and can be used to detect carbohydrates without having to modify them in any way. However this methodology has been restricted in the past due to its reliance on defined sugar standards for identification. This limitation could be circumvented by linking the IC to a mass spectrometer (MS) for advanced sugar identification and characterisation, but until recently this technology was not possible. Recent exciting advances by the bioscience company ThermoFisher Ltd have enabled the direct linking of the IC to the MS to create a rapid and robust pipeline for advanced carbohydrate analysis. The IC-MS would enable quantification and characterisation of a wide range of complex carbohydrates from human, animal, plant and microbial sources and thus has great potential to transform our ability to analyse and understand the vast diversity of glycan structures that exist and decipher their roles in biology.