Clickable polymeric coating for glycan microarrays

The interaction of carbohydrates with a variety of biological targets, including antibodies, proteins, viruses, and cells are of utmost importance in many aspects of biology. Glycan microarrays are increasingly used to determine the binding specificity of glycan-binding proteins. In this study, a novel microarray support is reported for the fabrication of glycan arrays that combines the higher sensitivity of a layered Si-SiO2 surface with a novel polymeric coating easily modifiable by subsequent click reaction. The alkyne-containing copolymer, adsorbed from an aqueous solution, produces a coating by a single step procedure and serves as a soft, tridimensional support for the oriented immobilization of carbohydrates via azide/alkyne Cu (I) catalyzed "click" reaction. The advantages of a functional 3D polymer coating making use of a click chemistry immobilization are combined with the high fluorescence sensitivity and superior signal-to-noise ratio of a Si-SiO2 substrate. The proposed approach enables the attachment of complex sugars on a silicon oxide surface by a method that does not require skilled personnel and chemistry laboratories.