Biologics Development Organization, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Devens, MA, 01434, USA.
Analytical Science Biologics, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Lexington, MA, 02421, USA.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2021 Mar;413(8):2113-2123. doi: 10.1007/s00216-021-03176-z. Epub 2021 Feb 5.
Isomerization of aspartic acid (Asp) in therapeutic proteins could lead to safety and efficacy concerns. Thus, accurate quantitation of various Asp isomerization along with kinetic understanding of the variant formations is needed to ensure optimal process development and sufficient product quality control. In this study, we first observed Asp-succinimide conversion in complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) Asp-Gly motif of a recombinant mAb through ion exchange chromatography, intact protein analysis by mass spectrometry, and LC-MS/MS. Then, we developed a specific peptide mapping method, with optimized sample digestion conditions, to accurately quantitate Asp-succinimide-isoAsp variants at peptide level without method-induced isomerization. Various kinetics of Asp-succinimide-isoAsp isomerization pathways were elucidated using O labeling followed by LC-MS analysis. Molecular modeling and molecular dynamic simulation provide additional insight on the kinetics of Asp-succinimide formation and stability of succinimide intermediate. Findings of this work shed light on the molecular construct and the kinetics of the formation of isoAsp and succinimide in peptides and proteins, which facilitates analytical method development, protein engineering, and late phase development for commercialization of therapeutic proteins.
天冬氨酸(Asp)的异构化可能会引起治疗性蛋白的安全性和疗效问题。因此,需要准确定量各种 Asp 异构化,并了解变体形成的动力学,以确保优化工艺开发和充分的产品质量控制。在这项研究中,我们首先通过离子交换色谱、质谱完整蛋白分析和 LC-MS/MS 观察到重组单克隆抗体互补决定区(CDR)Asp-Gly 基序中天冬酰胺-琥珀酰亚胺的转化。然后,我们开发了一种特定的肽图分析方法,通过优化样品消化条件,可以在肽水平上准确定量天冬酰胺-琥珀酰亚胺-异构天冬氨酸变体,而不会引起方法诱导的异构化。使用 O 标记结合 LC-MS 分析,阐明了各种天冬酰胺-琥珀酰亚胺-异构天冬氨酸异构化途径的动力学。分子建模和分子动力学模拟为天冬酰胺-琥珀酰亚胺形成的动力学和琥珀酰亚胺中间物的稳定性提供了额外的见解。这项工作的结果阐明了肽和蛋白质中天冬氨酸异构化和琥珀酰亚胺形成的分子结构和动力学,这有助于分析方法的开发、蛋白质工程以及治疗性蛋白商业化的后期阶段开发。