Current methods in the noninvasive detection and surveillance of bladder cancer via urine analysisinclude voided urine cytology (VUC) and some diagnostic urinary protein biomarkers; however, due tothe poor sensitivity of VUC and high false-positive rates of currently available protein assays, detectionof bladder cancer via urinalysis remains a challenge. In the study presented here, a rapid, high-sensitivitytechnique was developed to profile the N-linked glycoprotein component in naturally micturated humanurine specimens. Concanavalin A (Con A) affinity chromatography coupled to nanoflow liquidchromatography was utilized to separate the complex peptide mixture prior to a linear ion trap MSanalysis. Of 186 proteins identified with high confidence by multiple analyses, 40% were secretedproteins, 18% membrane proteins, and 14% extracellular proteins. In this study, the presence of severalproteins appeared to be associated with the presence of bladder cancer, including
-1B-glycoproteinthat was detected in all tumor-bearing patient samples but in none of the samples obtained from non-tumor-bearing individuals. The combination of Con A affinity chromatography and nano-LC/MS/MSprovides an initial investigation of N-glycoproteins in complex biological samples and facilitates theidentification of potential biomarkers of bladder cancer in noninvasively obtained human urine.