Biotherapeutic Antibody Subunit LC-MS and Peptide Mapping LC-MS Measurements to Study Possible Biotransformation and Critical Quality Attributes In Vivo

Abstract Biotransformation monitoring involves tracking drug modification occurring during in-life studies. Critical Quality Attribute monitoring from forced degraded drug material or in-life sample sets can provide an in-depth assessment of product quality for support in early- or late-stage drug development. For Critical Quality Attribute analysis, biotherapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) subunit analysis and peptide mapping liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) approaches are used, although typically from an in vitro setting (e.g., formulation buffer) not involving biological samples or material. Here, samples from a high-dose rat study ( in vivo ) are subjected to analysis by ligand binding assay, mAb subunit LC-MS, and peptide mapping by LC-MS. Taken together, data from the 3 analytical approaches provide information regarding drug concentration in circulation, biotransformation, and biotherapeutic drug product quality. The concept of a multitier workflow for preclinical or clinical sample sets can be applied to other biotherapeutic mAb products such as bispecific mAbs, fusions proteins, or antibody-drug conjugates.