Protein glycosylation is a complicated posttranslational modification that mediates a diversity of cellular processes [
1–
3]. Mucin-type (GalNAc type) O-glycosylation is one of the most diverse glycosylation of secretory and membrane-bound proteins. Its alteration serves as a hallmark of cancer that has helped to shape the management and understanding of cancer [
4]. Typically, the tumor-associated glycoprotein Mucin 1 (MUC1) is commonly overexpressed in various epithelial adenocarcinomas such as lung, liver, colon, breast, pancreatic, and ovarian cancers [
5,
6]. It comprises a highly variable number of glycosylated repeat tandem regions (VNTRs), a transmembrane region, and other segments [
7]. Due to reduced glycosyltransferase activity with simultaneously increased sialyltransferase activity in the tumor tissue, the O-glycosylation of MUC1 tends to be altered from long branched chains to short structures and capped with terminal sialic acids [
8]. This process is known as truncated O-glycosylation (Fig.
1A). A representative truncated mucin-type O-glycan is the Thomsen–Friedenreich antigen (also known as core 1, TF), which forms the core of many long and complex structures [
9]. The biosynthetic pathway of TF is as follows: First, a GalNAc residue is linked to a serine or threonine residue by polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (ppGalNAc-Ts) to form Tn antigen (GalNAcα-) (Fig.
1A, step i). Next, the Tn antigen is further converted to TF (Galβ1-3GalNAcα) or sialyl-Tn (Neu5Acα2-6GalNAcα-, STn), which is catalyzed by the enzyme core 1 β1,3-Gal-transferase (core 1 GalT) or sialyltransferase ST6GalNAc1, respectively (Fig.
1A, step ii). After that, TF can be further elongated into a series of glycan structures, or be sialylated to form sialyl-TF (Neu5Acα2-3Galβ1-3GalNAcα-, STF), which is catalyzed by the enzyme α2,3-sialyltransferases (ST3Gal1) (Fig.
1A, step iii) [
8]. Recognition of multiple glycosylated variants of peptides is highly required for reliable cancer diagnostics and prognosis. Strategies for glycopeptide detection include enzymatic or chemical cleavage methods to release glycans from glycopeptides [
10,
11]. The enzymatic methods are generally selective for certain specific glycan linkages or glycoprotein substrates, whereas chemical methods (e.g., base-mediated β-elimination) may cause unintended side reactions, complicating glycan analysis [
12]. Moreover, these approaches often require costly enzymes or careful handling of reactive chemicals. As an alternative, direct characterization of glycopeptides offers valuable insights into site-specific glycosylation, commonly carried out by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) or immunoassays [
2,
13]. For mass spectrometry, ionization and detection efficiency of glycopeptides vary with their chemical properties, leading to potential uncertainty. For instance, sialic acid modifications at glycan terminal can result in lower mass intensity compared to other glycopeptides at equimolar concentrations [
14]. Immunoassays, on the other hand, require antibody or lectin labeling, and may be influenced by factors such as glycan binding affinity and potential cross-reactivity with structurally similar glycans [
15]. Given these considerations, there remains a need for approaches that enable the direct identification of O-glycopeptides in a label-free manner.