Carbohydrate microarrays for enzymatic reactions and quantification of binding affinities for glycan-protein interactions

Glycans are involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes through interactions with proteins. Thus, the molecular basis of glycan-protein interactions provides valuable information on understanding biological phenomena and exploiting more effective carbohydrate-based therapeutic agents and diagnostic tools. Carbohydrate microarray technology has become a powerful tool for evaluating glycan-mediated biological events in a high-throughput manner. This technology is mostly applied for rapid analysis of glycans-protein interactions in the field of functional glycomics. In order to expand application areas of glycan microarrays, we have used carbohydrate microarrays for measurement of binding affinities between glycans and proteins and profiling of glycosyltransferase activities. The glycan microarrays used for these studies are constructed by immobilizing maleimide or hydrazide-conjugated glycans on the thiol or hydrazide-derivatized glass slides, respectively. This protocol describes the fabrication of carbohydrate microarrays and their applications to enzymatic reactions and determination of quantitative binding affinities.