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Gangliosides structure and composition in brain development and malignant alteration

As the most complex group of glycosphingolipids, gangliosides are characterized by a sialylated carbohydrate chain attached to a ceramide moiety. Structural variability of both oligosaccharide and ceramide portion contributes to high diversity of individual species. Gangliosides are characteristic components of neuronal cell membranes and are particularly abundant in mammalian brain tissues. They are localized in the external leaflet of plasma membranes and are expressed as cell surface antigens. They participate in numerous processes such as cell- cell/cell-matrix recognition, directional motility, axon guidance, cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Brain tumors are the second-leading cause of death due to cancer for children and young people under age 20. There are more than 100 different types of brain tumors which makes effective treatment complicated. Complete and accurate data on all brain tumors is needed to provide the foundation for investigations of its causes and research leading to improved diagnosis and treatment. Since the amount and expression patterns of gangliosides specifically change during brain development, maturation, aging and due to diseases, they are considered as neurodevelopmental and pathobiochemical biomarker4. Analytical techniques mostly used in ganglioside analysis include chromatographic techniques for separation and detection, such as TLC (Thin Layer Chromatography) and HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography), immunochemical methodologies and various mass spectrometric (MS) approaches. MS represents one of the most precise and sensitive analytical methods in the detection and structural identification of different ganglioside species. Combining mass spectrometry and hyphenated approaches our group has collected evidence that ganglioside compositions of different neuroanatomically (and functionally) defined human brain regions are the region- and the developmental stage- specific, and more over that specific changes of ganglioside compositions correlate with aging and pathological processes. Data characterizing compositions and providing structural information of total ganglioside mixtures isolated and purified from human brain tissues and brain tumors homogenates will be presented. The results confirm the applied analytical strategies as a powerful tool for determining ganglioside fingerprinting compositions and identifying biomarker species related to normal vs. pathological changes in the brain.

gangliosides; human brain; brain tumors; HPTLC; mass spectrometry

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