In this presented approach, the N-glycans were first released, labeled by the procainamide tag and purified by cellulose-containing SPE cartridges. Then, N-glycan analysis of IgG, trastuzumab, and human plasma were performed by an HPLC-HILIC-FLD-MS/MS system. The MS (base peak) and FLD chromatograms of the determined N-glycan structures obtained from IgG and trastuzumab are shown in Figure 1, respectively. The MS/MS data obtained from these analyses were imported to the software and searched against a glycan database. Example MS/MS annotations of glycan structures from MS/MS spectra are given in Supplementary Figure 5. The lists of the detected N-glycan structures are provided in Supplementary Information Table S1 and S2 for IgG and trastuzumab, respectively. In addition, core fucosylated and bisected N-glycan types were detected by the analysis of fragment ions (proc-N1F1 (m/z 587.3+), proc-H1N3 (m/z 1009.5+) and proc-H1N3F1 (m/z 1155.5+) obtained from tandem MS analysis.

Figure 1: HILIC-FLD-MS/MS analysis of IgG and trastuzumab. Base peak and fluorescent chromatograms of procainamide-labeled N-glycans of (A, B) IgG and (C, D) trastuzumab, respectively. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
This strategy was also followed by the analysis of human plasma glycoproteome (Figure 2). The list of the N-glycans were listed in Supplementary Table S3 including the core fucosylation and bisecting N-glycan information. In the strategy, a python-based open-source tool was used to quantify N-glycan structures by using FLD chromatograms. The N-glycan profile of IgG N-glycans were exemplified and displayed in Figure 3. Thus, N-glycan profiling of glycoproteins were achieved by HILIC-FLD-MS/MS analysis.

Figure 2: HILIC-FLD-MS/MS analysis of human plasma glycome. (A) Base peak chromatogram (B) fluorescent chromatogram. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 3: Relative abundances of IgG N-glycans. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Supplementary Figure 1: The gradient program applied in the study is illustrated. Please click here to download this File.
Supplementary Figure 2. Mass spectrometric parameters applied in the study. Please click here to download this File.
Supplementary Figure 3: The parameters for searching glycan structures used in the study. Please click here to download this File.
Supplementary Figure 4: Parameters applied for the extraction of peak areas. Please click here to download this File.
Supplementary Figure 5. Annotated MS/MS spectra of IgG N-glycans. (A) H3N5F1 (B) H4N4F1. Please click here to download this File.
Supplementary Table 1: The list of N-glycans belonging to IgG obtained from HILIC-FLD-MS/MS analysis. Please click here to download this Table.
Supplementary Table 2: The list of N-glycans belonging to trastuzumab obtained from HILIC-FLD-MS/MS analysis. Please click here to download this Table.
Supplementary Table 3: The list of N-glycans belonging to human plasma glycoproteome obtained from HILIC-FLD-MS/MS analysis. Please click here to download this Table.