Abstract Glycan modifications play critical roles in cell function in both healthy and diseased states, from controlling proliferation to modulating the immune response. Lectins are glycan-binding proteins that recognize specific glycan structures. Their glycan-specific nature makes them important tools to profile, characterize, and capture the complexity of glycans in biological systems. To explore the complexity of glycan modifications, Vector Laboratories provides Glysite™ Scout Glycan Screening Kits, which are fully integrated kits for the detection of glycan expression in tissue sections. Our curated lectin selection enables the detection of the major glycan motifs including sialylation, fucosylation and galactosylation, for the evaluation of glycan distribution in a target specimen. Here, we established a standard workflow of lectin-integrated tissue immunoassays. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue sections were prepared from a selected panel of normal and cancerous tissues including colon, pancreas, breast, kidney, brain, and lung. Our lectin histochemical analysis revealed tissue-dependent glycopatterns, and our result was aligned with morphological changes observed in disease progression. We then utilized Glysite Explorer in situ PLA Glycan Detection Kit, a novel proximity-based detection technology, to investigate protein-specific glycosylation changes from healthy to diseased tissues. Our findings highlight distinct glycosylation patterns associated with pathological conditions, including cancer, underscoring the relevance of glycosylation in disease mechanisms. In summary, Glysite™ Scout Glycan Screening Kits are easily plugged into day-to-day tissue immunoassays that allow comprehensive screening of N- and O-glycan profiles in various tissue sections. Then Glysite Explorer Kit can be used to explore the glycosylation changes of specific biomarkers in cancer tissues. Altogether, this new data will add to the growing understanding of the impact of protein glycosylation on cancer biology, enriching biomarker discovery and therapeutic targeting. Citation Format: Shuhui Chen, Erika Leonard, Shamali Roy. Novel tools for spatial profiling of protein glycosylation in cancer biology abstract. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2026; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2026 Apr 17-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86(7 Suppl):Abstract nr 791.
Chen et al. (Fri,) studied this question.