The invention relates to a method for forming a complex of a substance having a sugar chain and a lectin having affinity with the sugar chain of the substance having a sugar chain. The method includes bringing a sample containing the substance having a sugar chain into contact with the lectin in the presence of a water-soluble polysaccharide having no N-acetylglucosamine or a water-soluble compound having a polysaccharide having no N-acetylglucosamine (polysaccharides according to the invention and to an enhancer for forming a complex of a substance having a sugar chain and a lectin having affinity with the sugar chain of the substance having a sugar chain, wherein the enhancer includes the polysaccharides according to the invention.

The invention is directed to a competitive glucose binding affinity assay comprising a glucose receptor (typically mannan binding lectin) labeled with an assay fluorophore and a modified glucose analog (typically dextran) labeled with a reference fluorophore. In certain embodiments, the glucose analog is dextran and is coupled to both a reference fluorophore and a quencher dye (e.g. hexamethoxy crystalviolet-1). Optionally the reference fluorophore is blue shifted relative to the assay fluorophore.

Described herein are engineered microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules, kits comprising the same and uses thereof. Some particular embodiments of the microbe-targeting or microbe-binding molecules comprise a carbohydrate recognition domain of mannose-binding lectin, or a fragment thereof, linked to a portion of a Fc region. In some embodiments, the microbe-targeting molecules or microbe-binding molecules can be conjugated to a substrate, e.g., a magnetic microbead, forming a microbe-targeting substrate (e.g., a microbe-targeting magnetic microbead). Such microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates and the kits comprising the same can bind and/or capture of a microbe and/or microbial matter thereof, and can thus be used in various applications, e.g., diagnosis and/or treatment of an infection caused by microbes such as sepsis in a subject or any environmental surface. Microbe-targeting molecules and/or substrates can be regenerated after use by washing with a low pH buffer or buffer in which calcium is insoluble.

An antigen detection method detects an antigen having a specific sugar chain in a sample with a lectin that binds to plural kinds of sugar chains including the specific sugar chain. The detection method includes: a first step of bringing the lectin into contact with the sample; a second step of bringing a glycohydrolase capable of cleaving at least one kind of sugar chain to which the lectin can bind into contact with the sample, the at least one kind of sugar chain excluding the specific sugar chain among the plural kinds of sugar chains; and a step of detecting the antigen bound with the lectin after the first and second steps.

Described herein is a flow cytometry platform for the detection of glycosylated proteins in a clinical sample, along with the use of a flow cytometry platform for early disease diagnoses, for example, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The use of the flow cytometry platform described herein allows for multiplexing and quantification of two or more biomarkers associated with the disease, for example, alpha-feto protein (AFP), alfa-feto protein-L3 (AFP-L3), or alpha-L-fucosidase (AFU) for HCC patients.

The invention encompasses methods and test strips for detecting the presence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in a biological sample with a lateral flow device which uses lectin conjugates, anti-antigen conjugates, an immobilized serum line, and an immobilized anti-antigen line.

A method of analyzing diagnostic information for estimating which of a benign prostate disease and prostate cancer is affecting a subject to be diagnosed combines two methods of analyzing diagnostic information. The first method includes measuring a concentration of a mucin-1 (Tn-MUC1), reactive with a lectin that recognizes and binds to an N-acetyl-D-galactosamine->serine(threonine) residue, in a subject blood sample, comparing the measured value with a threshold value, and estimating that a disease affecting the subject is benign prostate disease when the measured value is greater than the threshold value. The second method includes measuring a concentration of a prostate-specific antigen (LacdiNAc-PSA), reactive with a lectin that recognizes and binds to an N-acetyl-D-galactosamine B1-4 N-acetylglucosamine residue in the blood sample, comparing the measured value with a threshold value, and estimating that the disease affecting the subject is prostate cancer when the measured value of LacdiNAc-PSA is greater than the threshold value.

A sample, which is a mixture of glycans, is fluorescently labeled (S2). The sample is subsequently separated by microchip electrophoresis under a buffer solution with no lectin added as well as under multiple kinds of buffer solutions with different lectins respectively added, and the separated components are fluorescently detected (S3). A high-concentration gel which can produce a molecular-sieving effect is used as the buffer solution. Multiple electropherograms are created from the detection results (S4). A glycan having a lectin specifically attached is delayed during its migration in the buffer solution, so that a peak corresponding to this glycan will effectively disappear. Accordingly, based on the kinds of lectins and the presence/absence of a peak on each of the electropherograms, the structure of each glycan in the sample is estimated and the glycan is identified (S5).

A method of analyzing diagnostic information, the method including: measuring a concentration of a mucin-1 (Tn-MUC1), which is reactive with a lectin that recognizes and binds to an N-acetyl-D-galactosamine.fwdarw.serine (threonine) residue, in a blood sample originated from a subject to be diagnosed; comparing the measured value with a threshold value; and estimating that a disease affecting the subject to be diagnosed is not prostate cancer but a benign prostate disease when the measured value of the concentration of Tn-MUC1 is greater than the threshold value.

A Wisteria floribunda monomeric lectin polypeptide is provided. The Wisteria floribunda monomeric lectin polypeptide includes any one of the amino acid sequences selected from the group consisting of: (1) the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 2; (2) the amino acid sequence defined in (1) above, except that one to 20 amino acids at positions other than Cys272 position is/are deleted, substituted, inserted, or added; and (3) the amino acid sequence defined in (1) or (2) above, further having an N-terminus deletion of one to 30 amino acids, in which Cys272 is alkylated, and the polypeptide is capable of specifically binding to a GalNAc terminal sugar chain.