N-Glycomic profiling reveals dysregulated glycans related to oral cancer using MALDI-MS

Aberrant protein N-glycosylation is one of the hallmarks of malignancy, while its role in oral cancer (OC) progression is still poorly understood making it a perfect biomarker for early-stage cancer. In this work, we describe a MALDI-MS-based N-glycomic analysis with multivariate data analysis approach for exploration and classification of the patients with OC. Various statistical analyses were used to determine differential N-glycome profiles. There were 8 glycan structures significantly increased ( p  < 0.05) in all OC-derived  microvesicles (MVs). Importantly, the increases in these glycans were significantly greater in the early stage of OC than those in the advanced stage of OC. Additionally, N-glycomic profiles from the serum were also performed, demonstrating a significant change of 11 glycan structures ( p  < 0.05). Our data highlighted the effectiveness approach of MALDI-MS-based MV N-glycomic profiling on OC screening, and presented strong potential for further identifying targeted glycoproteomics signatures of the cancer.