High throughput peptide mapping method for analysis of site specific monoclonal antibody oxidation.

Abstract Oxidation of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) often occurs on surface exposed methionine and tryptophan residues during their production in cell culture, purification, and storage, and can potentially impact the binding to their targets. Characterization of site specific oxidation is critical for antibody quality control. Antibody oxidation is commonly determined by peptide mapping/LC–MS methods, which normally require a long (up to 24 h) digestion step. The prolonged sample preparation procedure could result in oxidation artifacts of susceptible methionine and tryptophan residues. In this paper, we developed a rapid and simple UV based peptide mapping method that incorporates an 8-min trypsin in-solution digestion protocol for analysis of oxidation. This method is able to determine oxidation levels at specific residues of a mAb based on the peptide UV traces within