Abstract Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are antibody‐based therapeutics that have proven to be highly effective cancer treatment platforms. They are composed of monoclonal antibodies conjugated with highly potent drugs via chemical linkers. Compared to cysteine‐targeted chemistries, conjugation at native lysine residues can lead to a higher degree of structural heterogeneity, and thus it is important to evaluate the impact of conjugation on antibody conformation. Here, we present a workflow involving native ion mobility (IM)‐MS and gas‐phase unfolding for the structural characterization of lysine‐linked monoclonal antibody (mAb)–biotin conjugates. Following the determination of conjugation states via denaturing Liquid Chromatography‐Mass Spectrometry (LC–MS) measurements, we performed both size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and native IM‐MS measurements in order to compare the structures of biotinylated and unmodified IgG1 molecules. Hydrodynamic radii (Rh) and collision cross‐sectional (CCS) values were insufficient to distinguish the conformational changes in these antibody–biotin conjugates owing to their flexible structures and limited instrument resolution. In contrast, collision induced unfolding (CIU) analyses were able to detect subtle structural and stability differences in the mAb upon biotin conjugation, exhibiting a sensitivity to mAb conjugation that exceeds native MS analysis alone. Destabilization of mAb–biotin conjugates was detected by both CIU and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data, suggesting a previously unknown correlation between the two measurement tools. We conclude by discussing the impact of IM‐MS and CIU technologies on the future of ADC development pipelines.
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Quantitatively Differentiating Antibodies Using Charge-State Manipulation, Collisional Activation, and Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry
Antibody-based therapeutics continue to expand both in the number of products and in their use in patients. These heterogeneous proteins challenge traditional drug characterization strategies, but ion mobility (IM) and mass spectrometry (MS) approaches have eased the challenge of higher-order structural characterization. Energy-dependent IM-MS, e.g., collision-induced unfolding (CIU), has been demonstrated to be sensitive to subtle differences in structure. In this study, we combine a charge-reduction method, cation-to-anion proton-transfer reactions (CAPTR), with energy-dependent IM-MS and varied solution conditions to probe their combined effects on the gas-phase structures of IgG1κ and IgG4κ from human myeloma. CAPTR paired with MS-only analysis improves the confidence of charge-state assignments and the resolution of the interfering protein species. Collision cross-section distributions were determined for each of the charge-reduced products. Similarity scoring was used to quantitatively compare distributions determined from matched experiments analyzing samples of the two antibodies. Relative to workflows using energy-dependent IM-MS without charge-state manipulation, combining CAPTR and energy-dependent IM-MS enhanced the differentiation of these antibodies. Combined, these results indicate that CAPTR can benefit many aspects of antibody characterization and differentiation.
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- PAR ID:
- 10484433
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Chemical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Analytical Chemistry
- ISSN:
- 0003-2700
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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