Metabolism-Based Click-Mediated Platform for Specific Imaging and Quantification of Cell Surface Sialic Acids

Anal Chem. 2017 Jan 3;89(1):538-543. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b04141. Epub 2016 Dec 12.

Abstract

Although we believe that the cell surface sialic acids (Sias) are playing an important role in cell-cell interactions and related tumor metastasis processes, acquisition of their quantitative information has yet been a challenge to date. Here, we reported the construction of a new analytical platform for Sias-specific imaging and quantification. We used N-azidoacetyl-mannosamine tetraacylated as a metabolic sugar substrate to bioassemble azido-Sias on the surface of cells via the metabolic pathway of Sias de novo synthesis. These azido-Sias allow us to perform a duplex Sias-specific analysis with various fluorescent and elemental reporters such as DIBO-Alexa Fluor 647, DBCO-DOTA-Eu, and DBCO-PEG4-BODIPY, which can be easily labeled and/or tagged through an effective copper-free bioorthogonal click reaction. Compared to the previous reported strategies, we quantified the cell surface Sias with the LODs (3σ) down to 8.9 fmol and 0.24 pmol using 153Eu- and 10B-species unspecific isotope dilution ICPMS, in addition to their red- and green-CLSM profiling. Such a platform enables us to evaluate Sias regulation under the administration of paclitaxel, finding that 1 μM paclitaxel induced a significant Sias decrease of 67% on the surface of hepatic tumor cell SMMC-7721, while had no obvious adverse effect to that of para-carcinomatous liver cell LO2. Besides Sias, we believe that this metabolism-based click-mediated platform will provide opportunities to study other monosaccharides and their corresponding biological roles when more corresponding chemically modified sugar substrates and specific bioorthogonal reactions are developed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Azides / chemistry
  • Boron Compounds / chemistry
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Click Chemistry
  • Humans
  • Metabolomics / methods*
  • Molecular Imaging / methods*
  • Sialic Acids / chemistry
  • Sialic Acids / metabolism*
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene
  • Azides
  • Boron Compounds
  • Sialic Acids