Evidence of disulfide bond scrambling during production of an antibody-drug conjugate.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that are formed using thiol-maleimide chemistry are commonly produced by reactions that occur at or above neutral pHs. Alkaline environments can promote disulfide bond scrambling, and may result in the reconfiguration of interchain disulfide bonds in IgG antibodies, particularly in the IgG2 and IgG4 subclasses. IgG2-A and IgG2-B antibodies generated under basic conditions yielded ADCs with comparable average drug-to-antibody ratios and conjugate distributions.

Rapid, automated characterization of disulfide bond scrambling and IgG2 isoform determination.

Human antibodies of the IgG2 subclass exhibit complex inter-chain disulfide bonding patterns that result in three structures, namely A, A/B, and B. In therapeutic applications, the distribution of disulfide isoforms is a critical product quality attribute because each configuration affects higher order structure, stability, isoelectric point, and antigen binding. The current standard for quantification of IgG2 disulfide isoform distribution is based on chromatographic or electrophoretic techniques that require additional characterization using mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods to confirm disulfide linkages.

Influence of disulfide bond isoforms on drug conjugation sites in cysteine-linked IgG2 antibody-drug conjugates.

Cysteine-linked antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) produced from IgG2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are more heterogeneous than ADCs generated from IgG1 mAbs, as IgG2 ADCs are composed of a wider distribution of molecules, typically containing 0 - 12 drug-linkers per antibody. The three disulfide isoforms (A, A/B, and B) of IgG2 antibodies confer differences in solvent accessibilities of the interchain disulfides and contribute to the structural heterogeneity of cysteine-linked ADCs. ADCs derived from either IgG2-A or IgG2-B mAbs were compared to better understand the role of disulfide isoforms on attachment sites and distribution of conjugated species.

Characterization of cysteine-linked conjugation profiles of immunoglobulin G1 and immunoglobulin G2 antibody-drug conjugates.

Two US FDA-approved antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs; Kadcyla(®) and Adcetris(®) ) have accelerated clinical interest in the potential of targeted cancer therapeutics as the next generation of oncology drugs that are designed to increase efficacy while reducing overall toxicity. Thiol conjugates are produced by partial reduction of the interchain disulfides, followed by conjugation with a drug-linker, resulting in a heterogeneous mix of molecules that differ with respect to the site of conjugation and the number of drugs per antibody. ADCs that have been characterized in this class have an immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) framework and there is little information available on IgG2 ADCs.

Sorbitol crystallization-induced aggregation in frozen mAb formulations.

Sorbitol crystallization-induced aggregation of mAbs in the frozen state was evaluated. The effect of protein aggregation resulting from sorbitol crystallization was measured as a function of formulation variables such as protein concentration and pH. Long-term studies were performed on both IgG1 and IgG2 mAbs over the protein concentration range of 0.