Systematic Review: Immunoglobulin G N -Glycans as Next-Generation Diagnostic Biomarkers for Common Chronic Diseases

Abstract

Glycomics is a new subspecialty in omics systems sciences that offers significant promise for next-generation biomarkers on disease susceptibility, drug target discovery, and precision medicine. In this context, alternative immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycosylation has been reportedly implicated in several common chronic diseases, although systematic assessment is currently lacking in the literature. We conducted a systematic review of observational studies on IgG N-glycan variability and susceptibility to common chronic diseases. Observational studies reporting an association between diseases (such as colorectal cancer, dyslipidemia, ischemic stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus) and IgG N-glycans quantified by ultraperformance liquid chromatography were included. The glycans were categorized into 24 initial IgG glycan peaks (GPs). Notably, aging positively correlated with GP1, GP2, GP4–7, GP10, GP11, GP19, and GP24, while negatively correlated with GP8, GP12–15, GP17, GP18, GP20, GP21, and GP23 (p < 0.05). The absolute value of significant correlation coefficients of age and IgG glycans ranged from 0.043 to 0.645. We found that the high levels of GP1–4, GP6, GP7, and GP24 and low levels of GP9, GP13–15, GP18, and GP23 could potentially increase the risk of disease. In conclusion, the present systematic review suggests that the field of glycomics, and GP1–4, GP6, GP7, GP9, GP13–15, GP18, GP23, and GP24 in particular, holds promise for further candidate biomarker research on susceptibility to common chronic diseases.