Multilevel capillary gel electrophoresis characterization of new antibody modalities

Abstract

Capillary gel electrophoresis-based methods were applied to comprehensively characterize two development phase new modality monoclonal antibodies including a glycoengineered and a bispecific test compound. The samples were subjected to multilevel characterization at the intact (both by SDS-SGE and cIEF) as well as the reduced protein and the released N-glycan levels. SDS capillary gel electrophoresis analysis showed excellent separation of the light and heavy chains of both samples. The bispecific antibody required a special temperature gradient denaturation process and a longer capillary to resolve its two light chain fragments. Separation of PNGase F digested antibodies revealed migration time shifts, suggesting the presence of N-linked glycosylation on the corresponding subunits. For efficient glycan removal, the highly glycosylated glycoengineered monoclonal antibody was trypsin digested prior to the endoglycosidase treatment. The released glycans were profiled by capillary gel electrophoresis after APTS labeling and their oligosaccharide structures were identified by exoglycosidase based carbohydrate sequencing. Finally, capillary isoelectric focusing shed light on the charge heterogeneity of the test compounds, providing important complementary information. A flowchart was established for workflow optimization.