Smoking and lung cancer-induced changes in N-glycosylation of blood serum proteins. Glycobiology 2012

ow nloaded from 2 Glycosylation is a key post-translational protein modification which appears important in malignant transformation and tumor metastasis. Abnormal glycosylation of different proteins can often be measured in blood serum. In this study, we extend our serum-based structural investigations to samples provided by patients diagnosed with lung cancer, paying particular attention to the effects of smoking on the serum glycomic traces. Following a battery of glycomic tests, we find that several fucosylated tetra-antennary structures with varying degrees of sialylation are increased in their abundances in control samples provided by the former smokers, with further elevations in the lung cancer patients who were former smokers. Further detailed investigations demonstrated that the level of outer-arm fucosylation was elevated in the control samples of the former smokers and again in the lung cancer samples provided by the former smokers. This trend was particularly noticeable for the tri- and tetra-antennary structures