Volume 9, Issue 7 2402033
Research Article

Branched Hierarchical Porous Carbon Enables Ultrasensitive Detection of Serum Glycans for Comprehensive Assessment of Urological Cancers

Yiwen Lin

Yiwen Lin

Department of Chemistry, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

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Yijie Chen

Yijie Chen

Department of Chemistry, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

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Yonglei Wu

Corresponding Author

Yonglei Wu

Jiangsu Yueda Group Co., Ltd., Yancheng, 224000 China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

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Chunhui Deng

Corresponding Author

Chunhui Deng

Department of Chemistry, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

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Shuai Jiang

Corresponding Author

Shuai Jiang

Department of Department of Urology, Zhongshan Hospital, Zhongshan Hospital Wusong Branch, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

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Nianrong Sun

Corresponding Author

Nianrong Sun

Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032 China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

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First published: 27 February 2025

Abstract

Sensitive detection of low levels of serum glycans is essential for diagnosing various urological cancers with ambiguous clinical symptoms, but this remains challenging due to the lack of affordable, user-friendly methods with adequate accuracy. Here, microemulsion-guided assembly of hierarchical porous cerium-based metal–organic frameworks and iron ion absorption are exploited to develop a novel graphitized carbon matrix (HPC-Ce/Fe) with high specific surface area and hierarchical porosity through controllable high-temperature treatment, which effectively promotes the diffusion and adsorption of N-glycans, resulting in an outstanding improvement in the detection limit for N-glycans. Leveraging the high enrichment sensitivity of HPC-Ce/Fe, high-throughput mass spectrometry is used to rapidly acquire high-quality glycan profiles from over a hundred serum samples of urological cancers, including prostate, bladder, and renal cancer. Machine learning is employed to screen and evaluate differential-specific glycans, thereby developing a comprehensive diagnostic system for urological cancers, capable of distinguishing cancer patients from healthy donors (area under the curve values (AUCs) of 0.987–1.000) as well as differentiating among cancer types (AUCs of 0.960–0.993).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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