Antibody Sequence Analysis using GingisKHAN® and FabRICATOR®
In an article by Luca Fornelli & Kristina Srzentic et al. recently published in Analytical Chemistry the authors present a workflow for antibody sequence determination by combining top-down and middle-down LC/MS. The authors analyzed the therapeutic antibody rituximab in its intact and fragmented form, using FabRICATOR and GingisKHAN to generate antibody subunits. By combining the performance of multiple ion activation techniques and a new software tool with top-level and middle-level strategies, the authors achieved extensive sequence coverage and obtained valuable information on key quality attributes.
Rituximab was fragmented using members of the SmartEnzymes™ family for the generation of various antibody subunits. GingisKHAN was used for generating intact Fc and Fab subunits by site-specific cleavage of IgG1 above the hinge region. In order to obtain antibody subunits Fc/2, Fd and LC the authors used FabRICATOR-digestion followed by reduction. The intact antibody and the antibody subunits were analyzed using reversed phase LC/MS coupled with three separate ion activation techniques, and analyzed using a new software tool for fragment ion deconvolution.
The complementing features of the ion activation techniques provided high quality information for a low number of LC/MS experiments. The authors achieved sequence coverage equivalent to what is obtainable with bottom-up strategies. In addition, the authors were able to analyze quality attributes such as PTMs, chain pairing and intact antibody mass determination – properties otherwise lost after extended proteolysis. These results highlight the benefits of combining top-level and middle-level strategies for applications currently performed by bottom-level strategies.
GingisKHAN® (Kgp enzyme) is a cysteine protease that digests human IgG1 at a specific site above the hinge region. The enzyme generates intact Fc and Fab subunits in 60 minutes.