By reading the commentary of Bevelacqua and Mortazavi regarding our recently published paper titled as "The effect of simulated space radiation on the N-glycosylation of human immunoglobulin G1"[1], we are afraid that some of the important messaging aspects of our paper might not have been articulated adequately to be fully understandable for a wider audience, i.e., not separation scientists. First, we should clarify that complete space radiation description was not the goal of this paper. In this short communication we only intended to show the effect of simulated space radiation on the conserved N-glycosylation of IgG1 molecules with the goal to understand if they could be utilized as disease biomarkers during longer space missions, similar to that as they are currently used here on Earth, e.g. for autoimmune disease or aging markers. Therefore, no discussion was given about any biological effects either as our study only investigated the qualitative effects of proton irradiation on the N-linked carbohydrate decomposition of IgG type 1 molecules with the intent of suggesting them to be used as biomarkers during deep space travel. Radioadaptation was never an issue in our study for the reasons mentioned above.
Keywords: Glycans; IgG; Space.
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