Capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry of carbohydrates

Updates of the current strategies of labeling for N-glycan analysis

This mini review summarizes the current methods used for screening N-glycosylation of glycoproteins, with a specific focus on therapeutic proteins and on techniques involving the release of N-glycans. With the continuous development of biopharmaceuticals, particularly monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which are N-glycosylated proteins, monitoring has gained importance in recent decades. Glycosylation of therapeutic glycoproteins is considered a critical quality attribute because it can impact the efficacy and safety of these therapeutic drugs. The protocols and instrumentation have evolved with the advancement of technologies. Nowadays, methods are becoming increasingly robust, rapid, and sensitive. For the release of N-glycans, the most commonly used method is enzymatic release using PNGase F. The latter is discussed in light of the advent of rapid release that is now possible. The strategy for separating N-glycans using either liquid chromatography (LC) with hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) chemistry or capillary electrophoresis will be discussed. The selection of the labeling agent is a crucial step in sample preparation for the analysis of released N-glycans. This review also discusses labeling agents that are compatible with and dependent on the separation and detection techniques employed. The emergence of multiplex labeling agents is also summarized. The latter enables the analysis of multiple samples in a single run, but it requires MS analysis.

Rapid and comprehensive monoclonal antibody Characterization using microfluidic CE-MS

The identification and control of monoclonal antibody (mAb) critical quality attributes (CQAs) is a key component of quality by design (QbD). In this work, rapid peptide mapping and native intact charge variants analysis have been developed to comprehensively characterize and monitor mAb CQAs using a microfluidic capillary electrophoresis - mass spectrometry (CE-MS) platform. The ultrafast peptide mapping simultaneously analyzed multiple CQAs, including protein primary structure, oxidation, deamidation, succinimide, C-terminal lysine (Lys) clipping, N-terminal cyclization, and glycosylation. The microfluidic CE-MS based peptide mapping acquired results comparable to conventional but lengthy liquid chromatography - MS (LC-MS) based approach. The native intact analysis resolved mAb charge variants with a comparable resolution as commonly achieved using capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF). Charge variants' identities were assigned based on characteristic mass shifts, knowledge learned from peptide mapping, and changes in electrophoretic mobility. Major mAb glycoforms of each charge variants were resolved and identified in the deconvoluted mass spectra. Furthermore, a model simulation was performed to reconstruct intact deconvoluted mass spectra using peptide mapping results. The reconstructed and experimentally determined intact deconvoluted mass spectra were highly correlated, suggesting that our data collected at the peptide level and intact level were consistent and highly comparable. Overall, the microfluidic CE-MS based peptide mapping and native intact charge variants analysis are high-throughput methods that have great potential to support biopharmaceutical development.

High-Sensitivity Glycan Profiling of Blood-Derived Immunoglobulin G, Plasma, and Extracellular Vesicle Isolates with Capillary Zone Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry

We developed a highly sensitive method for profiling of N-glycans released from proteins based on capillary zone electrophoresis coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (CZE-ESI-MS) and applied the technique to glycan analysis of plasma and blood-derived isolates. The combination of dopant-enriched nitrogen (DEN)-gas introduced into the nanoelectrospray microenvironment with optimized ionization, desolvation, and CZE-MS conditions improved the detection sensitivity up to ∼100-fold, as directly compared to the conventional mode of instrument operation through peak intensity measurements. Analyses without supplemental pressure increased the resolution ∼7-fold in the separation of closely related and isobaric glycans. The developed method was evaluated for qualitative and quantitative glycan profiling of three types of blood isolates: plasma, total serum immunoglobulin G (IgG), and total plasma extracellular vesicles (EVs). The comparative glycan analysis of IgG and EV isolates and total plasma was conducted for the first time and resulted in detection of >200, >400, and >500 N-glycans for injected sample amounts equivalent to <500 nL of blood. Structural CZE-MS² analysis resulted in the identification of highly diverse glycans, assignment of α-2,6-linked sialic acids, and differentiation of positional isomers. Unmatched depth of N-glycan profiling was achieved compared to previously reported methods for the analysis of minute amounts of similar complexity blood isolates.

Past, present, and future developments in enantioselective analysis using capillary electromigration techniques

Enantioseparation of chiral products has become increasingly important in a large diversity of academic and industrial applications. The separation of chiral compounds is inherently challenging and thus requires a suitable analytical technique that can achieve high resolution and sensitivity. In this context, CE has shown remarkable results so far. Chiral CE offers an orthogonal enantioselectivity and is typically considered less costly than chromatographic techniques, since only minute amounts of chiral selectors are needed. Several CE approaches have been developed for chiral analysis, including chiral EKC and chiral CEC. Enantioseparations by EKC benefit from the wide variety of possible pseudostationary phases that can be employed. Chiral CEC, on the other hand, combines chromatographic separation principles with the bulk fluid movement of CE, benefitting from reduced band broadening as compared to pressure-driven systems. Although UV detection is conventionally used for these approaches, MS can also be considered. CE-MS represents a promising alternative due to the increased sensitivity and selectivity, enabling the chiral analysis of complex samples. The potential contamination of the MS ion source in EKC-MS can be overcome using partial-filling and counter-migration techniques. However, chiral analysis using monolithic and open-tubular CEC-MS awaits additional method validation and a dedicated commercial interface. Further efforts in chiral CE are expected toward the improvement of existing techniques, the development of novel pseudostationary phases, and establishing the use of chiral ionic liquids, molecular imprinted polymers, and metal-organic frameworks. These developments will certainly foster the adoption of CE(-MS) as a well-established technique in routine chiral analysis.

Recent advances in the analysis of human milk oligosaccharides by liquid phase separation methods

Human milk is a complex, dynamically changing biological fluid, which contains a large amount of non-conjugated carbohydrates, referred to as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). These HMOs are very important for the infants as they play important roles in the formation of the gut microbiome, the immune system and support brain development. HMOs show highly complex structural diversity due to numerous linkage possibilities of the building monosaccharides. In order to elucidate their structure-function relationship and to develop more effective infant formulas, cutting-edge analytical technologies are in great demand. In this paper, we review the current strategies for HMO analysis based on liquid phase separation methods. High performance liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and their hyphenation with mass spectrometry are critically reviewed, emphasizing their advantages and disadvantages from practical point of views. Recent advances of the methods are categorized according to their application fields.

Online Capillary Zone Electrophoresis Negative Electron Transfer Dissociation Tandem Mass Spectrometry of Glycosaminoglycan Mixtures

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are important biological molecules that are highly anionic and occur in nature as complex mixtures. A platform that combines capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) separations with mass spectrometry (MS) and gas-phase sequencing by using negative electron transfer dissociation (NETD) is shown to be efficacious for the structural analysis of GAG mixtures. CZE is a separation method well suited to the highly negatively charged nature of GAGs. NETD is an electron-based ion activation method that enables the generation of informative fragments with retention of the labile sulfate half-ester modification that determine specific GAG function. Here we combine for the first time NETD and CZE for assigning the structures of GAG oligomers present in mixtures. The speed of ion activation by NETD is found to couple well with the narrow peaks resulting from CZE migration. The platform was optimized with mixtures of GAG tetrasaccharide standards. The potential of the platform is demonstrated by the analysis of enoxaparin, a complex mixture of low molecular weight heparins, which was separated by CZE within 30 minutes and characterized by NETD MS/MS in one online experiment. 37 unique molecular compositions have been identified in enoxaparin using CZE-MS and 9 structures have been assigned with CZE-NETD-MS/MS.

On-line capillary electrophoresis/laser-induced fluorescence/mass spectrometry analysis of glycans labeled with Teal™ fluorescent dye using an electrokinetic sheath liquid pump-based nanospray ion source

RATIONALE

N-linked glycan analysis of recombinant therapeutic proteins, such as monoclonal antibodies, Fc-fusion proteins, and antibody-drug conjugates, provides valuable information regarding protein therapeutics glycosylation profile. Both qualitative identification and quantitative analysis of N-linked glycans on recombinant therapeutic proteins are critical analytical tasks in the biopharma industry during the development of a biotherapeutic.

METHODS

Currently, such analyses are mainly carried out using capillary electrophoresis/laser-induced fluorescence (CE/LIF), liquid chromatography/fluorescence (LC/FLR), and liquid chromatography/fluorescence/mass spectrometry (LC/FLR/MS) technologies. N-linked glycans are first released from glycoproteins by enzymatic digestion, then labeled with fluorescence dyes for subsequent CE or LC separation, and LIF or MS detection. Here we present an on-line CE/LIF/MS N-glycan analysis workflow that incorporates the fluorescent Teal™ dye and an electrokinetic pump-based nanospray sheath liquid capillary electrophoresis/mass spectrometry (CE/MS) ion source.

RESULTS

Electrophoresis running buffer systems using ammonium acetate and ammonium hydroxide were developed for the negative ion mode CE/MS analysis of fluorescence-labeled N-linked glycans. Results show that on-line CE/LIF/MS analysis can be readily achieved using this versatile CE/MS ion source on common CE/MS instrument platforms.

CONCLUSIONS

This on-line CE/LIF/MS method using Teal™ fluorescent dye and electrokinetic pump-based nanospray sheath liquid CE/MS coupling technology holds promise for on-line quantitation and identification of N-linked glycans on recombinant therapeutic proteins.

Human disease glycomics: technology advances enabling protein glycosylation analysis - part 1

INTRODUCTION

Protein glycosylation is recognized as an important post-translational modification, with specific substructures having significant effects on protein folding, conformation, distribution, stability and activity. However, due to the structural complexity of glycans, elucidating glycan structure-function relationships is demanding. The fine detail of glycan structures attached to proteins (including sequence, branching, linkage and anomericity) is still best analysed after the glycans are released from the purified or mixture of glycoproteins (glycomics). The technologies currently available for glycomics are becoming streamlined and standardized and many features of protein glycosylation can now be determined using instruments available in most protein analytical laboratories. Areas covered: This review focuses on the current glycomics technologies being commonly used for the analysis of the microheterogeneity of monosaccharide composition, sequence, branching and linkage of released N- and O-linked glycans that enable the determination of precise glycan structural determinants presented on secreted proteins and on the surface of all cells. Expert commentary: Several emerging advances in these technologies enabling glycomics analysis are discussed. The technological and bioinformatics requirements to be able to accurately assign these precise glycan features at biological levels in a disease context are assessed.

Characterization of IgG glycosylation in rheumatoid arthritis patients by MALDI-TOF-MSn and capillary electrophoresis

An analytical method based on the combination of multistage mass spectrometry (MSⁿ) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) was developed for the analysis of immunoglobulin G (IgG) glycosylation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. It has been recently suggested that IgG glycosylation defect may be involved in RA immunopathogenesis. Complete characterization of glycans, including both qualitative and quantitative analysis, requires a combination of different techniques, and accurate, robust, sensitive, and high-throughput methodologies are important for analysis of clinical samples. In the present study, N-glycosylation of IgG in RA patients and in healthy people was characterized through identification of the released glycans using multistage matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MSⁿ), and quantitation by CE. Assignment of the IgG N-glycan structures was made through branching pattern analysis by MSⁿ with high-throughput. Further accurate quantitation indicated that galactosylation and sialylation of IgG N-glycans in RA cases were significantly lower than in healthy subjects. The results indicate that CE coupled with MSⁿ can identify abnormal glycosylation of IgG in RA patients compared with healthy people, and that the present work is useful for RA mechanism studies and RA diagnosis. Graphical Abstract Qualitative and quantitative analysis of IgG glycosylation in rheumatoid arthritis patients by MALDI-TOF-MSⁿ and capillary electrophoresis.

LC-MS/MS analysis of permethylated N-glycans facilitating isomeric characterization

The biosynthesis of glycans is a template-free process; hence compositionally identical glycans may contain highly heterogeneous structures. Meanwhile, the functions of glycans in biological processes are significantly influenced by the glycan structure. Structural elucidation of glycans is an essential component of glycobiology. Although NMR is considered the most powerful approach for structural glycan studies, it suffers from low sensitivity and requires highly purified glycans. Although mass spectrometry (MS)-based methods have been applied in numerous glycan structure studies, there are challenges in preserving glycan structure during ionization. Permethylation is an efficient derivatization method that improves glycan structural stability. In this report, permethylated glycans are isomerically separated; thus facilitating structural analysis of a mixture of glycans by LC-MS/MS. Separation by porous graphitic carbon liquid chromatography at high temperatures in conjunction with tandem mass spectrometry (PGC-LC-MS/MS) was utilized for unequivocal characterization of glycan isomers. Glycan fucosylation sites were confidently determined by eliminating fucose rearrangement and assignment of diagnostic ions, achieved by permethylation and PGC-LC at high temperatures, respectively. Assigning monosaccharide residues to specific glycan antennae was also achieved. Galactose linkages were also distinguished from each other by CID/HCD tandem MS. This was attainable because of the different bond energies associated with monosaccharide linkages. Graphical Abstract LC-MS and tandem MS of terminal galactose isomers.

Ion-neutral collisional cross sections of carbohydrate isomers as divalent cation adducts and their electron transfer products

As the gravity of glycoscience continues to amass, a commensurate demand for rapid, sensitive, and structurally comprehensive glycoanalytical tools has arisen. Among the most elusive but desirable analytical capabilities is the ability to expeditiously and unambiguously detect, distinguish, and resolve carbohydrates that differ only in their constitutional isomerism and/or stereoisomerism. While ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has proven a highly promising tool for such analyses, the facility of this method to discriminate larger oligosaccharides is still somewhat limited. In an effort to expand the capabilities of IMS to discriminate among carbohydrate isomers, the present investigation was focused on IMS studies of four trisaccharide isomers, four pentasaccharide isomers, and two hexasaccharide isomers, each as group II metal ion adducts and their corresponding gas-phase electron transfer (ET) products. These studies were also evaluated in the context of previously investigated group I metal ion adducts of the same saccharides. The orientationally averaged ion-neutral collisional cross sections (CCSs) of the various carbohydrate/metal ion adducts were found to be dependent on the structures of specific carbohydrate isomers, sensitive to the electronic characteristics of the bound cation, and responsive to the attachment of an additional electron (in the case of divalent metal ion adducts). Overall, these results underscore the utility of metal ions for probing carbohydrate structure in concert with IMS, and the capacity of gas-phase ion chemistry to expand the menu of such probes.

Mammalian protein glycosylation--structure versus function

Carbohydrates fulfil many common as well as extremely important functions in nature. They show a variety of molecular displays--e.g., free mono-, oligo-, and polysaccharides, glycolipids, proteoglycans, glycoproteins, etc.--with particular roles and localizations in living organisms. Structure-specific peculiarities are so many and diverse that it becomes virtually impossible to cover them all from an analytical perspective. Hence this manuscript, focused on mammalian glycosylation, rather than a complete list of analytical descriptors or recognized functions for carbohydrate structures, comprehensively reviews three central issues in current glycoscience, namely (i) structural analysis of glycoprotein glycans, covering both classical and novel approaches for teasing out the structural puzzle as well as potential pitfalls of these processes; (ii) an overview of functions attributed to carbohydrates, covering from monosaccharide to complex, well-defined epitopes and full glycans, including post-glycosylational modifications, and (iii) recent technical advances allowing structural identification of glycoprotein glycans with simultaneous assignation of biological functions.

Capillary Electrophoresis-Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry for Quantitative Analysis of Glycans Labeled with Multiplex Carbonyl-Reactive Tandem Mass Tags

Recently developed carbonyl-reactive aminoxy tandem mass tag (aminoxyTMT) reagents enable multiplexed characterization and quantitative comparison of structurally complex glycans between different biological samples. Compared to some previously reported isotopic labeling strategies for glycans, the use of the aminoxyTMT method features a simple labeling procedure, excellent labeling efficiency, and reduced spectral complexity at the MS(1) level. Presence of the tertiary amine functionality in the reporter region of the aminoxyTMT labels leads to increased ionization efficiency of the labeled glycans thus improving electrospray ionization (ESI)-mass spectrometry (MS) detection sensitivity. The use of the labeling reagent also makes electrophoretic separation of the labeled neutral and acidic glycans feasible. In this work, we characterized the ESI and collision induced dissociation (CID) behavior of the aminoxyTMT-labeled neutral and sialylated glycans. For the high-mannose N-glycans and small sialylated oligosaccharides, CID fragmentation of [M + Na + H](2+) provides the most informative MS(2) spectra for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. For complex N-glycans, MS(3) of the protonated Y1(H) ion can be used for relative quantification without interference from the HexNAc fragments. Online capillary electrophoresis (CE)-ESI-MS/MS analyses of multiplexed aminoxyTMT-labeled human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) and different types of N-glycans released from glycoprotein standards were demonstrated. Improved resolution and quantification accuracy of the labeled HMO isomers was achieved by coupling CE with traveling wave ion mobility (TWIM)-CID-MS/MS. N-Glycans released from human serum protein digests were labeled with six-plex aminoxyTMT and subjected to CE-ESI-MS/pseudo-MS(3) analysis, which demonstrated the potential utility of this glycan relative quantification platform for more complex biological samples.

Modelling the electrophoretic migration behaviour of peptides and glycopeptides from glycoprotein digests in capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry

In this study, the classical semiempirical relationships between the electrophoretic mobility and the charge-to-mass ratio (me vs. q/M(α)) were used to model the migration behaviour of peptides and glycopeptides originated from the digestion of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO), a biologically and therapeutically relevant glycoprotein. The Stoke's law (α=1/3), the classical polymer model (α=1/2) and the Offord's surface law (α=2/3) were evaluated to predict migration of peptides and glycopeptides, with and without sialic acids (SiA), in rhEPO digested with trypsin and trypsin-neuraminidase. The Stoke's law resulted in better correlations for the set of peptides used to evaluate the models, while glycopeptides fitted better with the classical polymer model. Once predicted migration times with both models, it was easy to simulate their separation electropherogram. Results were later validated predicting migration and simulating separation of a different set of rhEPO glycopeptides and also human transferrin (Tf) peptides and glycopeptides. The excellent agreement between the experimental and the simulated electropherograms with rhEPO and Tf digests confirmed the potential applicability of this simple strategy to predict, in general, the peptide-glycopeptide electrophoretic map of any digested glycoprotein.

Ion mobility studies of carbohydrates as group I adducts: isomer specific collisional cross section dependence on metal ion radius

Carbohydrates play numerous critical roles in biological systems. Characterization of oligosaccharide structures is essential to a complete understanding of their functions in biological processes; nevertheless, their structural determination remains challenging in part due to isomerism. Ion mobility spectrometry provides the means to resolve gas phase ions on the basis of their shape-to-charge ratios, thus providing significant potential for separation and differentiation of carbohydrate isomers. Here, we report on the determination of collisional cross sections for four groups of isomeric carbohydrates (including five isomeric disaccharides, four isomeric trisaccharides, two isomeric pentasaccharides, and two isomeric hexasaccharides) as their group I metal ion adducts (i.e., [M + Li](+), [M + Na](+), [M + K](+), [M + Rb](+), and [M + Cs](+)). In all, 65 collisional cross sections were measured, the great majority of which have not been previously reported. As anticipated, the collisional cross sections of the carbohydrate metal ion adducts generally increase with increasing metal ion radius; however, the collisional cross sections were found to scale with the group I cation size in isomer specific manners. Such measurements are of substantial analytical value, as they illustrate how the selection of charge carrier influences carbohydrate ion mobility determinations. For example, certain pairs of isomeric carbohydrates assume unique collisional cross sections upon binding one metal ion, but not another. On the whole, these data suggest a role for the charge carrier as a probe of carbohydrate structure and thus have significant implications for the continued development and application of ion mobility spectrometry for the distinction and resolution of isomeric carbohydrates.