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Glycosylation is a critical quality attribute of monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapeutics. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS) is an invaluable technology for the characterization of protein glycosylation. HILIC/MS-based glycan analysis relies on the library search using Glucose Units (GU) and accurate mass (AM) as the primary search parameters for identification. However, GU-based identifications are gradient-dependent and are not suitable for applications where separation gradients need to be optimized to analyze complex samples or achieve higher throughput. Additionally, the workflow requires calibration curves (using dextran ladder) to be generated for each analysis campaign, which in turn, are used to derive the GU values of the separated glycan species. To overcome this limitation, we employed a two-step strategy for targeted glycan analysis of a mAb expressed in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. The first step is to create a custom library of the glycans of interest independent of GU values (thereby eliminating the need for a calibration curve) and instead uses AM and retention time (RT) as the primary search variables. The second step is to perform targeted glycan screening using the custom-built library. The developed workflow was applied for targeted glycan analysis of a mAb expressed in CHO for 1) cell line selection 2) characterizing the day-wise glycan evolution in a model mAb during a fed-batch culture, 3) assessing the impact of different media conditions on glycosylation, and 4) evaluating the impact of two different process conditions on glycosylation changes in a model mAb grown in a bioreactor. Taken together, the data presented in this study provides insights into the sources of glycan heterogeneity in a model mAb that are seen during its commercial manufacturing.
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Effects of process intensification on homogeneity of an IgG1:κ monoclonal antibody during perfusion culture
AbstractThe pharmaceutical industry employs various strategies to improve cell productivity. These strategies include process intensification, culture media improvement, clonal selection, media supplementation and genetic engineering of cells. However, improved cell productivity has inherent risk of impacting product quality attributes (PQA). PQAs may affect the products’ efficacy via stability, bioavailability, or in vivo bioactivity. Variations in manufacturing process may introduce heterogeneity in the products by altering the type and extent of N-glycosylation, which is a PQA of therapeutic proteins. We investigated the effect of different cell densities representing increasing process intensification in a perfusion cell culture on the production of an IgG1-κ monoclonal antibody from a CHO-K1 cell line. This antibody is glycosylated both on light chain and heavy chain. Our results showed that the contents of glycosylation of IgG1-κ mAb increased in G0F and fucosylated type glycans as a group, whereas sialylated type glycans decreased, for the mAb whole protein. Overall, significant differences were observed in amounts of G0F, G1F, G0, G2FS1, and G2FS2 type glycans across all process intensification levels. G2FS2 and G2 type N-glycans were predominantly quantifiable from light chain rather than heavy chain. It may be concluded that there is a potential impact to product quality attributes of therapeutic proteins during process intensification via perfusion cell culture that needs to be assessed. Since during perfusion cell culture the product is collected throughout the duration of the process, lot allocation needs careful attention to process parameters, as PQAs are affected by the critical process parameters (CPPs). Key points• Molecular integrity may suffer with increasing process intensity.• Galactosylated and sialylated N-glycans may decrease.• Perfusion culture appears to maintain protein charge structure.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2100075
- PAR ID:
- 10522422
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
- Volume:
- 108
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0175-7598
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-024-13110-9
