A New Assay to Study IgG Galactosylation in Serum
In a study by Vanderschaeghe et al. (2018), a new assay to measure IgG galactosylation in serum has been developed. The setup includes hydrolysis of IgG Fc glycans using the IgG-specific endoglycosidase IgGZERO® (EndoS).
A reduced level of IgG galactosylation in serum is a promising biomarker to evaluate the severity, determine the treatment and assess the efficacy of the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Crohn’s disease.
Traditionally, it has been difficult to study IgG galactosylation in serum because of the requirement to purify the antibodies, a procedure that is both complex and time-consuming. However, Vanderschaeghe et al. demonstrate a new assay where IgGZERO is used to efficiently hydrolyze serum IgG Fc glycans before analyzing galactosylation on high-throughput DNA sequencers. IgGZERO works on natively folded IgG, meaning that the assay can be performed on complex serum without first needing to purify the IgG, a feature that renders the assay both fast and simple.
The authors conclude by describing their new IgGZERO-based assay:
“… an important breakthrough towards the clinical implementation of the proposed biomarker” (Vanderschaeghe et al. 2018).
Find the full text of the paper here: