Dynamic tracing of sugar metabolism reveals the mechanisms of action of synthetic sugar analogs

Monique Scherpenzeel, Federica Conte, Christian Büll, Angel Ashikov, Esther Hermans, Anke Willems, Walinka Tol, Else Kragt, Marek Noga, Ed E Moret, Torben Heise, Jeroen D Langereis, Emiel Rossing, Michael Zimmermann, M Estela Rubio-Gozalbo, Marien I de Jonge, Gosse J Adema, Nicola Zamboni, Thomas Boltje, Dirk J Lefeber

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Synthetic sugar analogs are widely applied in metabolic oligosaccharide engineering (MOE) and as novel drugs to interfere with glycoconjugate biosynthesis. However, mechanistic insights on their exact cellular metabolism over time are mostly lacking. We combined ion-pair UHPLC-QqQ mass spectrometry using tributyl- and triethylamine buffers for sensitive analysis of sugar metabolites in cells and organisms and identified low abundant nucleotide sugars, such as UDP-arabinose in human cell lines and CMP-sialic acid (CMP-NeuNAc) in Drosophila. Furthermore, MOE revealed that propargyloxycarbonyl (Poc) labeled ManNPoc was metabolized to both CMP-NeuNPoc and UDP-GlcNPoc. Finally, time-course analysis of the effect of antitumor compound 3Fax-NeuNAc by incubation of B16-F10 melanoma cells with N-acetyl-D-[UL-13C6]glucosamine revealed full depletion of endogenous ManNAc 6-phosphate and CMP-NeuNAc within 24 hour. Thus, dynamic tracing of sugar metabolic pathways provides a general approach to reveal time-dependent insights into the metabolism of synthetic sugars, which is important for the rational design of analogs with optimized effects.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)239–250
JournalGlycobiology
Volume32
Issue number3
Early online date25 Oct 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press.

Keywords

  • fluoro sialic acid
  • glycosylation
  • metabolic oligosaccharide engineering
  • sugar metabolism
  • synthetic sugar analog

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