Life Science Research Center, Shimadzu Corporation, Kanda-Nishikicho 1, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Anal Chem. 2012 Nov 20;84(22):9655-62. doi: 10.1021/ac3023372. Epub 2012 Oct 2.
Site-specific characterization of glycoform heterogeneity currently requires glycan structure assignment and glycopeptide quantification in two independent experiments. We present here a new method combining multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry with energy-resolved structural analysis, which we termed "energy-resolved oxonium ion monitoring". We demonstrated that monitoring the yields of oligosaccharide-derived fragment ions (oxonium ions) over a wide range of collision induced dissociation (CID) energy applied to a glycopeptide precursor exhibits a glycan structure-unique fragmentation pattern. In the analysis of purified immunoglobulin glycopeptides, the energy-resolved oxonium ion profile was shown to clearly distinguish between isomeric glycopeptides. Moreover, limit of detection (LOD) of glycopeptide detection was 30 attomole injection, and quantitative dynamic range spanned 4 orders magnitude. Therefore, both quantification of glycopeptides and assignment of their glycan structures were achieved by a simple analysis procedure. We assessed the utility of this method for characterizing site-specific N-glycan microheterogeneity on therapeutic antibodies, including validation of lot-to-lot glycoform variability. A significant change in the degree of terminal galactosylation was observed in different production lots of trastuzumab and bevacizumab. Cetuximab Fab glycosylation, previously known to cause anaphylaxis, was also analyzed, and several causative antigens including Lewis X motifs were quantitatively detected. The data suggests that energy-resolved oxonium ion monitoring could fulfill the regulatory requirement on the routine quality control analysis of forthcoming biosimilar therapeutics.
目前,糖型异质性的特异性研究需要在两个独立的实验中完成聚糖结构的分配和糖肽的定量。我们在这里提出了一种新的方法,将多重反应监测质谱与能量分辨结构分析相结合,我们称之为“能量分辨氧鎓离子监测”。我们证明,在对糖肽前体应用广泛的碰撞诱导解离(CID)能量范围内,监测寡糖衍生片段离子(氧鎓离子)的产率,表现出一种具有聚糖结构特异性的碎裂模式。在纯化的免疫球蛋白糖肽分析中,表明能量分辨氧鎓离子谱能够清晰地区分异构糖肽。此外,糖肽检测的检测限(LOD)为 30 飞摩尔进样,定量动态范围跨越 4 个数量级。因此,通过简单的分析程序即可实现糖肽的定量和聚糖结构的分配。我们评估了这种方法在鉴定治疗性抗体的特定位点 N-糖型微异质性方面的应用,包括验证批间糖型变异性。曲妥珠单抗和贝伐珠单抗不同生产批次中观察到末端半乳糖基化程度的显著变化。还对导致过敏反应的西妥昔单抗 Fab 糖基化进行了分析,并定量检测到包括 Lewis X 基序在内的几个致病抗原。这些数据表明,能量分辨氧鎓离子监测可以满足对即将到来的生物类似药进行常规质量控制分析的监管要求。