Abstract
Abstract Background The EXENT® system is an automated platform designed to quantify monoclonal immunoglobulins in serum. EXENT® combines immunoprecipitation and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for the detection of monoclonal immunoglobulins at levels lower than traditional gel based methods. This study was designed to demonstrate if EXENT® prepared samples that were negative could be reflexed to a more sensitive method based on capillary flow Liquid Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) without any modifications to the EXENT® prepared sample. Methods Patient samples containing a monoclonal immunoglobulin (ranging from 20 to 40 g/L) were diluted into pooled polyclonal serum and the samples were prepared and analyzed by EXENT®. Samples that were negative by EXENT® were reflexed by directly loading EXENT® eluates onto the LC-MS instrument. The abundance of the monoclonal immunoglobulin was defined by the signal-to-noise (S/N) of the light chain peak observed after deconvolution. Results Baseline samples were diluted down to two levels, 0.100 g/L and 0.001 g/L. LC-MS detected the same light chain from the monoclonal immunoglobulin as the EXENT® system in all reflexed samples that were negative by EXENT®. Conclusions LC-MS can detect monoclonal immunoglobulins that can no longer be detected using the EXENT® system by tracking the unique molecular mass of the monoclonal light chain. Reflexing samples to LC-MS did not require additional sample handling resulting in a faster time-to-result than current NGS, NGF, and clonotypic peptide approaches. Furthermore, monitoring the intact monoclonal light chain circumvents enzymatic cleavage to create a unique clonotypic peptide, alleviating a situation where no unique peptide can be generated as has been shown previously by Bergen et al. As a consequence, this reflex-methodology results in a consistent way of measuring the presence of malignant B-cells with high sensitivity.
Published Version
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