Lectin Glycoarray Technologies for Nanoscale Biomedical Detection

Microarray technologies have begun to feature widely in biomedical science. These techniques, allow for high throughput and quantitative analysis of protein-carbohydrate interactions. Lectin and antibody have been evaluated with these new techniques which extend to the detection of viruses and bacteria. This review outlines some of the basic principles of ‘glycoarrays’ and illustrates their recent applications. Moreover, the review also gives an overview about a recently launched powerful detection platform using lectin microarrays with a potential to revolutionize the use of lectins in biomedical diagnosis and glycomics in general. In addition, two analytical techniques including mass spectrometry and glycan microarrays expected to play important role to characterize binding profile of new lectins are described in brief. Finally, strong and weak points of lectins as biorecognition molecules currently used in biomedical diagnosis are shown with conclusions drawn from molecular modelling of biorecognition events.