Aggregation of Antibody Drug Conjugates at Room Temperature: SAXS and Light Scattering Evidence for Colloidal Instability of a Specific Subpopulation.

Coupling a hydrophobic drug onto monoclonal antibodies via lysine residues is a common route to prepare antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), a promising class of biotherapeutics. But a few chemical modifications on protein surface often increase aggregation propensity, without a clear understanding of the aggregation mechanisms at stake (loss of colloidal stability, self-assemblies, denaturation, etc.), and the statistical nature of conjugation introduces polydispersity in the ADC population, which raises questions on whether the whole ADC population becomes unstable.