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）在生物学的所有领域都很重要，但由于自然界中存在的结构的巨大多样性，聚糖的研究已经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。具有电化学检测的离子交换色谱（IC）是用于分离、鉴定和定量复杂碳水化合物结构的核心技术之一，因为它提供了优异的分离和灵敏度，并且可以用于检测碳水化合物而无需以任何方式对其进行修饰。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。这种限制可以通过将IC连接到质谱仪（MS）进行高级糖鉴定和表征来规避，但直到最近，这种技术才成为可能。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，为先进的碳水化合物分析创建了快速而强大的管道。IC-MS将能够对来自人类、动物、植物和微生物来源的各种复杂碳水化合物进行定量和表征，因此具有巨大的潜力，可以改变我们分析和理解存在的广泛多样的聚糖结构并破译其在生物学中的作用的能力。

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.