Specific catalysis of asparaginyl deamidation by carboxylic acids: kinetic, thermodynamic, and quantitative structure-property relationship analyses.

Asparaginyl (Asn) deamidation could lead to altered potency, safety, and/or pharmacokinetics of therapeutic protein drugs. In this study, we investigated the effects of several different carboxylic acids on Asn deamidation rates using an IgG1 monoclonal antibody (mAb1*) and a model hexapeptide (peptide1) with the sequence YGKNGG. Thermodynamic analyses of the kinetics data revealed that higher deamidation rates are associated with predominantly more negative ΔS and, to a lesser extent, more positive ΔH. The observed differences in deamidation rates were attributed to the unique ability of each type of carboxylic acid to stabilize the energetically unfavorable transition-state conformations required for imide formation. Quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) analysis using kinetic data demonstrated that molecular descriptors encoding for the geometric spatial distribution of atomic properties on various carboxylic acids are effective determinants for the deamidation reaction. Specifically, the number of O-O and O-H atom pairs on carboxyl and hydroxyl groups with interatomic distances of 4-5 Å on a carboxylic acid buffer appears to determine the rate of deamidation. Collectively, the results from structural and thermodynamic analyses indicate that carboxylic acids presumably form multiple hydrogen bonds and charge-charge interactions with the relevant deamidation site and provide alignment between the reactive atoms on the side chain and backbone. We propose that carboxylic acids catalyze deamidation by stabilizing a specific, energetically unfavorable transition-state conformation of l-asparaginyl intermediate II that readily facilitates bond formation between the γ-carbonyl carbon and the deprotonated backbone nitrogen for cyclic imide formation.