Rational design of viscosity reducing mutants of a monoclonal antibody: hydrophobic versus electrostatic inter-molecular interactions.

High viscosity of monoclonal antibody formulations at concentrations ≥100 mg/mL can impede their development as products suitable for subcutaneous delivery. The effects of hydrophobic and electrostatic intermolecular interactions on the solution behavior of MAB 1, which becomes unacceptably viscous at high concentrations, was studied by testing 5 single point mutants. The mutations were designed to reduce viscosity by disrupting either an aggregation prone region (APR), which also participates in 2 hydrophobic surface patches, or a negatively charged surface patch in the variable region.

Chiral recognition in NMR spectroscopy using crown ethers and their ytterbium(III) complexes.

Chiral crown ethers 1 and 5 are useful enantiomeric discriminating agents in 1H NMR spectroscopy for neutral and protonated primary amines, amino acids, and amino alcohols. The presence of the carboxylic acid groups in 1 and 5 provide sites at which ytterbium(III) can bind. Adding ytterbium(III) nitrate to crown-substrate mixtures in methanol-d4 causes shifts in the spectra of substrates and often enhances the chiral discrimination in the 1H NMR spectrum.