Comparative analysis of intact glycopeptides from mannose receptor among different breast cancer subtypes using mass spectrometry

Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease, encompassing a number of biologically distinct entities with specific pathologic features and biological behaviors. In the preliminary experiments, we identified several glycosylation sites of mannose receptors in different breast cancer subtypes and showed that the mannose receptors could be a potential marker for breast cancer. However, the glycan composition on each site is still unknown because the glycan was removed by PNGase F in previous work. Analysis of intact glycopeptides can provide the information of both the glycan composition and the glycosylation site, which can further help to reveal the difference of glycosylation in the four subtypes of breast cancer. In this work, we analyzed the intact glycopeptides of the mannose receptors in serum from breast cancer patients using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) and LC-MS/MS. In total, 7 glycosylation sites and 12 glycan types corresponding to 26 intact glycopeptides were characterized from the four subtypes of breast cancer. Among them, 11 glycopeptides can be used to differentiate the subtypes of breast cancer, which further supported the previous conclusion that mannose receptor can be used as a potential marker for the identification of breast cancer subtypes.

Automated summary

Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease with different subtypes showing distinct biological characteristics and behaviors. This study identified multiple glycosylation sites and glycan types of mannose receptors in breast cancer patients' serum, some of which can be used to differentiate the subtypes of breast cancer.