Quantitation and pharmacokinetic modeling of therapeutic antibody quality attributes in human studies

Analytical Challenges Assessing Protein Aggregation and Fragmentation Under Physiologic Conditions

Therapeutic proteins are administered by injection or infusion. After administration, the physiologic environment in the desired body compartment - fluid or tissue - can impact protein stability and lead to changes in the safety and/or efficacy profile. For example, protein aggregation and fragmentation are critical quality attributes of the drug product and can occur after administration to patients. In this context, the in vivo stability of therapeutic proteins has gained increasing attention. However, in vivo protein aggregation and fragmentation are difficult to assess and have been rarely investigated. This mini-review summarizes analytical approaches to assess the stability of therapeutic proteins using simulated physiologic conditions. Furthermore, we discuss factors potentially causing in vivo protein aggregation, precipitation, and fragmentation in complex biological fluids. Different analytical approaches are evaluated with respect to their applicability and possible shortcomings when it comes to these degradation events in biological fluids. Tracking protein stability in biological fluids typically requires purifying or labeling the protein of interest to circumvent matrix interference of biological fluids. Improved analytical methods are strongly needed to gain knowledge on in vivo protein aggregation and fragmentation. In vitro models can support the selection of lead candidates and accelerate the pre-clinical development of therapeutic proteins.

Quantitation and modeling of post-translational modifications in a therapeutic monoclonal antibody from single- and multiple-dose monkey pharmacokinetic studies using mass spectrometry

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are important product quality attributes (PQAs) that can potentially impact drug stability, safety, and efficacy. The PTMs of a mAb may change remarkably in the bloodstream after drug administration compared to in vitro conditions. Thus, monitoring in vivo PTM changes of mAbs helps evaluate the criticality of PQAs during the product risk assessment. In addition, quantitation of the subject exposures to PTM variants helps assess the impact of PTMs on the safety and efficacy of therapeutic mAbs. Here, we developed an immunocapture-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) method to quantify in vivo PTM changes a therapeutic mAb overtime in single- and multiple-dose monkey pharmacokinetic (PK) studies. We also built mathematical models to predict the in vivo serum concentrations of PQAs, the subject exposures to PQAs, and the relative abundance of PQAs in single- and multiple-dose regimens. The model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results. The immunocapture-LC/MS method and mathematical models enable bioanalytical chemists to quantitatively assess the criticality of PQAs during drug development.

Development of a Gold Nanoparticle-Functionalized Surface Plasmon Resonance Assay for the Sensitive Detection of Monoclonal Antibodies and Its Application in Pharmacokinetics

As a prominent human therapeutic, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have attracted increasing attention in the past decade due to their high-targeting specificity, low toxicity, and prolonged efficacy. Systematic pharmacokinetic analysis of mAbs not only largely facilitates the understanding of their biologic functions but also promotes the development of therapeutic drug discovery, early clinical trial implementation, and therapeutic monitoring. However, the extremely complex nature of biomatrices and the especially low dosages of mAbs make their detection in biomatrices and further pharmacokinetic analysis highly challenging. Therefore, a method capable of reliably, quickly, and sensitively quantifying mAbs in biomatrices is urgently needed. In this work, we developed and evaluated an gold nanoparticle-functionalized surface plasmon resonance assay for cetuximab (C225) detection and pharmacokinetic analysis in rhesus monkeys. Combining its advantages of label-free pretreatment and amplified signal response, the lower limit of quantitation of C225 in monkey serum was reduced to 0.0125 μg/ml, and the linear range had an order of magnitude comparable to that of an ELISA-based method. Furthermore, the pharmacokinetics of C225 in rhesus monkeys was studied after intravenous infusions of single doses at 7.5, 24, and 75 mg/kg. The concentration of C225 in monkey serum was detectable after dosing for 720 hours. We believe that this new strategy will be applicable as a general protocol for mAb quantification, pharmacokinetic characteristic determination, and toxicokinetic analysis during drug development.

In Vivo Stability Profiles of Anti-factor D Molecules Support Long-Acting Delivery Approaches

The collection of aqueous humor (phase 1 b/2 Mahalo study) from patients dosed intravitreally with anti-factor D (AFD; FCFD4514S, lampalizumab), a humanized antibody fragment previously under investigation to treat geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration, presented a unique opportunity to examine AFD properties in clinical samples. We investigated AFD stability and target-binding characteristics to set up strategies for engineering and evaluating optimized molecules that enable less frequent dosing. Two variants, AFD.v8 and AFD.v14, were evaluated as alternatives to AFD for longer-acting treatments. Mass spectrometry, surface plasmon resonance, and immunoassay were used to assess AFD stability and binding activity in aqueous humor samples from Mahalo patients. In vitro stability and binding activity of AFD, AFD.v8, and AFD.v14 were assessed in human vitreous humor versus buffer at 37 °C over 16 weeks and in vivo in rabbits over 28 days along with pharmacokinetic determinations. In human aqueous humor, AFD specific binding was >85% through 30 days, and deamidation was <3% through 60 days, consistent with the AFD stability and binding activity in vitreous humor from humans in vitro and rabbits in vivo. Target binding, stability, and rabbit pharmacokinetic parameters of AFD.v8 and AFD.v14 were similar to those of AFD. Physiological stability and activity of AFD translated across in vitro and in vivo studies in humans and rabbits. The two variants AFD.v8 and AFD.v14 demonstrated comparable potency and pharmacokinetics. These findings, along with previously demonstrated improved solubility of AFD.v8 and AFD.v14, provide proof-of-concept for developing other similar long-acting therapeutic variants.

Review of approaches and examples for monitoring biotransformation in protein and peptide therapeutics by MS

Biotherapeutic drugs have emerged in quantity in pharmaceutical pipelines, and increasingly diverse biomolecules are progressed through preclinical and clinical development. As purification, separation, mass spectrometer detection and data processing capabilities improve, there is opportunity to monitor drug concentration by traditional ligand-binding assay or MS measurement and to monitor metabolism, catabolism or other biomolecular mass variants present in circulation. This review highlights approaches and examples of monitoring biotransformation of biotherapeutics by MS as these techniques are poised to add value to drug development in years to come. The increased use of such approaches, and the successful quantitation of biotherapeutic structural modifications, will provide insightful data for the benefit of both researchers and patients.

Assessment of susceptible chemical modification sites of trastuzumab and endogenous human immunoglobulins at physiological conditions

The quality control testing of chemical degradations in the bio-pharmaceutical industry is currently under controversial debate. Here we have systematically applied in vitro and in vivo stress conditions to investigate the influence of protein degradation on structure-function. Extensive purification and characterization enabled identification and functional assessment of the physiological degradation of chemical modification sites in the variable complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) and conserved region of trastuzumab. We demonstrate that the degradation of the solvent-accessible residues located in the CDR and the conserved fragment crystallizable region (Fc) occurs faster in vivo (within days) compared to the levels observed for bio-process and real-time storage conditions. These results hence question the rationality of extreme monitoring of low level alterations in such chemical modifications as critical patient safety parameters in product quality control testing, given that these modifications merely mirror the natural/physiological aging process of endogenous antibodies.

Ingrid Schmid and colleagues identified and evaluated the physiological degradation of chemical modification sites of trastuzumab. This study suggests that in vitro PBS incubation studies can be used to predict the protein degradation sites in vivo for critical quality attribute assessment.

Comparative study of profiling post-translational modifications of a circulating antibody drug in human with different capture reagents

Capture reagents are critical to affinity-based bioanalytical methods. The potential bias of capture reagents, for or against certain subpopulations of the target of interest, may lead to inaccurate quantitation. This issue is more profound for sensitive measurements, such as post-translational modification (PTM) profiling of therapeutic proteins from complex matrix. Here, a recently developed affinity purification coupled mass spectrometric method was utilized to assess the full sequence of a circulating therapeutic aglycosylated IgG1 (MAB3) in human subject, using two different capture reagents. We monitored all PTMs known to be related to MAB3 drug quality (three representative PTMs are shown in this paper). The results validated the comparability of these two reagents.

Detection of a phosphorylated glycine-serine linker in an IgG-based fusion protein

Molecular mass determination by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry of a recombinant IgG-based fusion protein (mAb1-F) produced in human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells demonstrated the presence of a dominant +79 Da product variant. Using LC-MS tryptic peptide mapping analysis and collision-induced dissociation (CID) and electron-transfer/higher-energy collision dissociation fragmentations, the modification was localized to the C-terminal serine residue of a glycine-serine linker [(G₄S)₂] of a fused heavy chain containing in total 2 (G₄S)₂-linkers. The modification was identified as a phosphorylation (+79.97 Da) by the presence of a 98 Da neutral loss reaction with CID, by spiking a synthetic phosphoserine peptide, and by dephosphorylation with alkaline phosphatase. A thermolysin digest combined with higher-energy collision dissociation (HCD) positioned the phosphoserine to one specific glycine-serine linker of the fused heavy chain, and the relative level of phosphorylated linker was determined to be 11.3% and 0.4% by LC-MS when the fusion protein was transiently expressed in HEK or in stably transformed Chinese hamster ovary cells, respectively. This observation demonstrates that fusions with glycine-serine linker sequences should be carefully evaluated during drug development to prevent the introduction of a phosphorylation site in therapeutic fusion proteins.