Gavin O'Connor

Conformational changes in oxidatively stressed monoclonal antibodies studied by hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry

Oxidation of methionine residues in biopharmaceuticals is a common and often unwanted modification that frequently occurs during their manufacture and storage. It often results in a lack of stability and biological function of the product, necessitating continuous testing for the modification throughout the product shelf life. A major class of biopharmaceutical products are monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), however, techniques for their detailed structural analysis have until recently been limited. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HXMS) has recently been successfully applied to the analysis of mAbs. Here we used HXMS to identify and localise the structural changes that occurred in a mAb (IgG1) after accelerated oxidative stress. Structural alterations in a number of segments of the Fc region were observed and these related to oxidation of methionine residues. These included a large change in the hydrogen exchange profile of residues 247–253 of the heavy chain, while smaller changes in hydrogen exchange profile were identified for peptides that contained residues in the interface of the CH2 and CH3 domains.

The Need for Standardization of Tacrolimus Assays

BACKGROUND Owing to the lack of an internationally recognized tacrolimus reference material and reference method, current LC-MS and immunoassay test methods used to monitor tacrolimus concentrations in whole blood are not standardized. The aim of this study was to assess the need for tacrolimus assay standardization. METHODS We sent a blinded 40-member whole-blood tacrolimus proficiency panel (0-30 μg/L) to 22 clinical laboratories in 14 countries to be tested by the following assays: Abbott ARCHITECT (n = 17), LC-MS (n = 9), and Siemens Dade Dimension (n = 5). Selected LC-MS laboratories (n = 4) also received a common calibrator set. We compared test results to a validated LC-MS method. Four samples from the proficiency panel were assigned reference values by using exact-matching isotope-dilution mass spectrometr at LGC. RESULTS The range of CVs observed with the tacrolimus proficiency panel was as follows: LC-MS 11.4%-18.7%, ARCHITECT 3.9%-9.5%, and Siemens Dade 5.0%-48.1%. The range of historical within-site QC CVs obtained with the use of 3 control concentrations were as follows: LC-MS low 3.8%-10.7%, medium 2.0%-9.3%, high 2.3%-9.0%; ARCHITECT low 2.5%-9.5%, medium 2.5%-8.6%, high 2.9%-18.6%; and Siemens/Dade Dimension low 8.7%-23.0%, medium 7.6%-13.2%, high 4.4%-10.4%. Assay bias observed between the 4 LC-MS sites was not corrected by implementation of a common calibrator set. CONCLUSIONS Tacrolimus assay standardization will be necessary to compare patient results between clinical laboratories. Improved assay accuracy is required to provide optimized drug dosing and consistent care across transplant centers globally.

On-line reaction monitoring by extractive electrospray ionisation

The design and development of a novel extractive electrospray ionisation (EESI) device for on-line reaction monitoring is described. The EESI apparatus uses a secondary, grounded nebuliser to produce an analyte aerosol and a Venturi pump is then used to transfer a sample of the aerosol to an electrospray source where it is ionised. The EESI apparatus was then tested with a variety of small, organic molecules to assess sensitivity, linearity and dynamic range. The performance of the technique will depend on the mass spectrometer used for the experiments; in the configurations used here it has a usable dynamic range of around 3.5 orders of magnitude with a linear range of around 2.5 orders of magnitude and is capable of analysing species present down to low µg/mL with signal-to-noise ratio greater than 2.5. The use of EESI for reaction monitoring was validated using a series of mock reaction mixtures and then used to monitor the base hydrolysis of ethyl salicylate to salicylic acid.

The role of ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry in the analysis of protein reference standards.

To achieve comparability of measurement results of protein amount of substance content between clinical laboratories, suitable reference materials are required. The impact on measurement comparability of potential differences in the tertiary and quaternary structure of protein reference standards is as yet not well understood. With the use of human growth hormone as a model protein, the potential of ion mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry as a tool to assess differences in the structure of protein reference materials and their interactions with antibodies has been investigated here.

RNA-induced conformational changes in a viral coat protein studied by hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry

A detailed knowledge of the capsid assembly pathways of viruses from their coat protein building blocks is required to devise novel therapeutic strategies to inhibit such assembly. In the quest for understanding how assembly of single-stranded RNA viruses is achieved at the molecular level, HDX-MS has been used to locate regions of a coat protein dimer that exhibit conformational/dynamical changes, and hence changes in their HDX kinetics, upon binding to a genomic RNA stem-loop known to trigger assembly initiation. The HDX-MS data highlight specific areas within the coat protein dimer that alter their exchange kinetics in the presence of the RNA. These include the known RNA-binding sites, β-strands E and G, which have a lower susceptibility to HDX when ligand-bound, as may have been expected. In contrast, several exposed regions are unaffected by ligand binding. Significantly in this example, the loop between β-strands F and G exhibits reduced HDX propensity when the RNA is bound, consistent with previous inferences from NMR and normal mode analysis that suggested a local conformational change at this loop induced by dynamic allostery. These results demonstrate the potential utility of HDX to probe conformational and dynamical changes within non-covalently bound protein-ligand complexes which are of widespread importance in many biomolecular systems.