Articles tagged ”Middle-down”
FabRICATOR in Efficient Structural Characterization of mAbs
In contrast to small generic molecules, therapuetic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) exhibit inherent heterogeneity that may arise during production and formulation or due to the storage conditions. Therefore, it is essential to characterize the structural heterogeneity of mAbs with respect to properties including conformational changes, aggregation and post-translational modifications. In this work, Zhu et al. at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College present an integration strategy for structural characterization of mAbs by combining intact mass and middle-down analysis using only a high-resolution Q-TOF mass spectrometer. Read more »
Biosimilar Comparability Assesment using FabRICATOR
Biosimilars are gaining in popularity as patents of innovator drugs are expiring. The analytical strategies to characterize and assess the similarity between the innovator product and the biosimilar often involve liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC/MS). In a recent paper from the Freie Universität Berlin, Montacir et al. studied Rituximab and follow-on molecules using FabRICATOR digestion, reduction, and middle-down LC/MS. Using this approach the researchers found differences in the level of c-terminal lysine clipping of the Fc/2 fragment, a sequence error in the Fd fragment (as previously reported by Beck et al 2014), and a pyro-glutamic acid formation in the light chain.
The comparability assessment of biosimilars and innovator drugs using middle-down LC/MS with FabRICATOR digestion have also been published by the FDA a couple of years ago (Wang et al. 2013). Wang et al. argues that the FabRICATOR middle-down approach is very suitable for rapid fingerprinting of complex molecules, due to the high robustness and specificity of the enzyme.
