ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Can voltammetry distinguish glycan isomers?

Mojmír Trefulka and Emil Paleček

Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Královopolská 135, 612 65 Brno, Czech Republic

E-mail: palecek@ibp.cz

Abstract: The analysis of glycan isomers is an important task in glycomics. This study reveals for the first time that two oligosaccharide pentamers can be distinguished electrochemically. 3α,6α-mannopentaose (MPO) and verbascose (VBS) were modified using Os(VI)-temed and the carbohydrate adducts measured directly in the reaction mixture using cyclic voltammetric (CV) and square wave voltammetric (SWV) stripping at the hanging mercury drop electrode. Some CV and SWV responses of MPO were found to differ from those of VBS at full electrode coverage, requiring μM concentrations at short accumulation time-intervals. Similar results were obtained at partial electrode coverage at nM concentrations. These results afford an opportunity for the development of a new simple and inexpensive glycan analysis.

Keywords: oligosaccharide isomers – Os(VI) complexes – chemical modification – voltammetry – mercury electrode

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1515/chempap-2015-0010

Chemical Papers 69 (1) 241–244 (2015)