Identification of an acetonitrile addition impurity formed during peptide disulfide bond reduction using dithiothreitol and Tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine

• Published in: Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis 2019-09, Vol.174, p.518-524
• Main Authors: Zhao, Eileen, St-Jean, Frédéric, Robinson, Sarah J., Sirois, Lauren E., Pellett, Jackson, Al-Sayah, Mohammad A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetonitriles - chemistry; Amines - chemistry; Chromatography, Liquid; Disulfide bond reduction; Disulfides - chemistry; Dithiothreitol (DTT); Dithiothreitol - chemistry; Glycine - chemistry; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Oncogene Protein pp60(v-src) - chemistry; Oxidation-Reduction; Peptide Fragments - chemistry; Peptides; Peptides - chemistry; Phosphines - chemistry; Protein Domains; Reducing Agents - chemistry; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; Tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP); Ultraviolet Rays
• ISSN: 0731-7085; 1873-264X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2019.06.020

•MS fragmentation of peptides containing multiple disulfide bonds is very challenging.•Offline disulfide bond reduction is done using reducing agents such as DTT and TCEP to enable efficient MS fragmentation.•Acetonitrile should be avoided during DTT- or TCEP-promoted reduction of peptides with an uncapped N-terminus primary amine. Identification and localization of modifications in peptides containing multiple disulfide bonds is challenging due to inefficient fragmentation in mass spectrometry (MS) analysis. In cases where MS fragmentation techniques such as electron capture dissociation (ECD), electron transfer dissociation (ETD), and ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) fail to achieve efficient fragmentation, off-line disulfide bond reduction techniques are typically employed prior to MS analysis. Some commonly used reducing agents include dithiothreitol (DTT) and tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP). In this work, we describe the detection and identification of an unexpected impurity that formed during the reduction of Peptide A, containing multiple disulfide bonds, while using DTT or TCEP as reducing agents and acetonitrile as a co-solvent. The DTT reduced products were found to be a mixture of the expected linear Peptide A (fully reduced) and an unknown product (>50%) with a mass corresponding to linear Peptide A plus 41 Da ([reduced-M + 41]). A series of experiments were subsequently performed to investigate the identity and origin of this impurity. Disulfide bond reduction with DTT was performed in aqueous mixtures containing acetonitrile, methanol, and deuterated acetonitrile; and with TCEP in aqueous mixtures containing acetonitrile. Additionally, glycine amino acid was used as a surrogate to investigate the mechanism. The liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMSMS) results demonstrated that the [reduced-M + 41] impurity was an acetonitrile addition on the peptide’s N-terminal glycine. The corresponding impurity [M + 41] was also found in the native Peptide A (non-reduced), suggesting that small amounts of this impurity may also be generated during the synthesis in the upstream process steps. By understanding the formation of this process-related impurity [M + 41], one could potentially reduce or eliminate its presence in Peptide A through chemical controls. Finally, this observation provides caution against using acetonitrile as a co-solvent during DTT- or TCEP-promoted reduction of peptides with an uncapped N-terminus primary amine.