Qualitative and quantitative characterization of protein biotherapeutics with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry

• Published in: Mass spectrometry reviews , Vol.36 (6), p.734-754
• Main Authors: Qu, Miao, An, Bo, Shen, Shichen, Zhang, Ming, Shen, Xiaomeng, Duan, Xiaotao, Balthasar, Joseph P., Qu, Jun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino acid sequence; Animals; Antibodies, Monoclonal - analysis; Antibodies, Monoclonal - therapeutic use; antibody‐drug conjugate; Biological Products - analysis; biotherapeutics; Chromatography; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Developmental stages; Disulfide bonds; Disulfides - analysis; Disulfides - chemistry; Drug Discovery - methods; Glycosylation; Humans; Immunoconjugates - analysis; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass Spectrometry - methods; Mass spectroscopy; Monoclonal antibodies; Peptide Mapping - methods; Proteins; Proteins - analysis; Proteins - metabolism; Proteins - pharmacokinetics; quantification; Recombinant Proteins - analysis; Scientific imaging; Sensitivity and Specificity; Tissue Distribution
• ISSN: 0277-7037; 1098-2787
• DOI: 10.1002/mas.21500

In the last decade, the advancement of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) techniques has enabled their broad application in protein characterization, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Owing to certain important merits of LC/MS techniques (e.g., high selectivity, flexibility, and rapid method development), LC/MS assays are often deemed as preferable alternatives to conventional methods (e.g., ligand‐binding assays) for the analysis of protein biotherapeutics. At the discovery and development stages, LC/MS is generally employed for two purposes absolute quantification of protein biotherapeutics in biological samples and qualitative characterization of proteins. For absolute quantification of a target protein in bio‐matrices, recent work has led to improvements in the efficiency of LC/MS method development, sample treatment, enrichment and digestion, and high‐performance low‐flow‐LC separation. These advances have enhanced analytical sensitivity, specificity, and robustness. As to qualitative analysis, a range of techniques have been developed to characterize intramolecular disulfide bonds, glycosylation, charge variants, primary sequence heterogeneity, and the drug‐to‐antibody ratio of antibody drug conjugate (ADC), which has enabled a refined ability to assess product quality. In this review, we will focus on the discussion of technical challenges and strategies of LC/MS‐based quantification and characterization of biotherapeutics, with the emphasis on the analysis of antibody‐based biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and ADCs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev 36:734–754, 2017