Application of 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate derivatization for enhanced peptide mapping analysis of non-biological complex drug glatiramer acetate using liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization collision-induced dissociation high-resolution mass spectrometry.

RATIONALE: Glatiramer acetate (GA) (Copaxone®) is a non-biological complex drug (NBCD) comprising random-sequence polymer chains of four amino acids (MW ~ 5-9 kDa) with unknown structure. The characterization of NBCDs by reversed-phase liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (RPLC/MS) peptide mapping is often impeded by insufficient separation and/or low sensitivity. To overcome this issue, pre-column derivatization of GA peptide digest was used to improve RPLC/MS detectability and to generate a comprehensive peptide profile. METHODS: Amino groups of peptides generated by trypsin digestion of GA were derivatized using 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate (AQC) reagent. The derivatized mixture of random-sequence peptides was analyzed by liquid chromatography/positive-mode electrospray ionization collision-induced dissociation high-resolution mass spectrometry (RPLC/ESI-CID-HRMS/MS). Data-independent LC/MSE mode was used for data acquisition. RESULTS: The derivatization of the GA peptide mixture increased the detectability of RPLC/ESI-CID-HRMS/MS analysis. The efficacy of the procedure was demonstrated by using selected peptides related to different polymeric chain origins. The resultant peptides were derivatized in a predictable manner giving a minimum of side products. The reproducibility of the developed method was demonstrated by comparing peptide elution profiles derived from six Copaxone® lots. CONCLUSIONS: Application of the AQC pre-column derivatization provides a framework that could be used as an attractive approach for monitoring the quality and characterization of NBCD products in the pharmaceutical industry.

Design of a strong cation exchange methodology for the evaluation of charge heterogeneity in glatiramer acetate.

Complex pharmaceuticals are in demand of competent analytical methods able to analyze charge heterogeneity as a critical quality attribute (CQA), in compliance with current regulatory expectations. A notorious example is glatiramer acetate (GA), a complex polypeptide mixture useful for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. This pharmaceutical challenges the current state of analytical technology in terms of the capacity to study their constituent species. Thus, a strong cation exchange methodology was designed under the lifecycle approach to support the establishment of GA identity, trough the evaluation of its chromatographic profile, which acts as a charge heterogeneity fingerprint. In this regard, a maximum relative margin of error of 5% for relative retention time and symmetry factor were proposed for the analytical target profile. The methodology met the proposed requirements after precision and specificity tests results, the former comprised of sensitivity and selectivity. Subsequently, method validation was conducted and showed that the method is able to differentiate between intact GA and heterogeneity profiles coming from stressed, fractioned or process-modified samples. In summary, these results provide evidence that the method is adequate to assess charge heterogeneity as a CQA of this complex pharmaceutical.

Theoretical approximations and experimental extinction coefficients of biopharmaceuticals.

UV spectrophotometric measurement is a widely accepted and standardized routine analysis for quantitation of highly purified proteins; however, the reliability of the results strictly depends on the accuracy of the employed extinction coefficients. In this work, an experimental estimation of the differential refractive index (dn/dc), based on dry weight measurements, was performed in order to determine accurate extinction coefficients for four biotherapeutic proteins and one synthetic copolymer after separation in a size-exclusion ultra-performance liquid chromatograph coupled to an ultraviolet, multiangle light scattering and refractive index (SE-UPLC-UV-MALS-RI) multidetection system. The results showed small deviations with respect to theoretical values, calculated from the specific amino acid sequences, for all the studied immunoglobulins. Nevertheless, for proteins like etanercept and glatiramer acetate, several considerations, such as glycan content, partial specific volume, polarizability, and higher order structure, should be considered to properly calculate theoretical extinction coefficient values. Herein, these values were assessed with simple approximations. The precision of the experimentally obtained extinction coefficients, and its convergence towards the theoretical values, makes them useful for characterization and comparability exercises. Also, these values provide insight into the absorbance and scattering properties of the evaluated proteins. Overall, this methodology is capable of providing accurate extinction coefficients useful for development studies.

Analysis of therapeutic proteins and peptides using multiangle light scattering coupled to ultra high performance liquid chromatography.

Analysis of the physical properties of biotherapeutic proteins is crucial throughout all the stages of their lifecycle. Herein, we used size-exclusion ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to multiangle light scattering and refractive index detection systems to determine the molar mass, mass-average molar mass, molar-mass dispersity and hydrodynamic radius of two monoclonal antibodies (rituximab and trastuzumab), a fusion protein (etanercept), and a synthetic copolymer (glatiramer acetate) employed as models. A customized instrument configuration was set to diminish band-broadening effects and enhance sensitivity throughout detectors. The customized configuration showed a performance improvement with respect to the high-performance liquid chromatography standard configuration, as observed by a 3 h column conditioning and a higher resolution analysis in 20 min. Analysis of the two monoclonal antibodies showed averaged values of 148.0 kDa for mass-average molar mass and 5.4 nm for hydrodynamic radius, whereas for etanercept these values were 124.2 kDa and 6.9 nm, respectively. Molar-mass dispersity was 1.000 on average for these proteins. Regarding glatiramer acetate, a molar mass range from 3 to 45 kDa and a molar-mass dispersity of 1.304 were consistent with its intrinsic peptide diversity, and its mass-average molar mass was 10.4 kDa. Overall, this method demonstrated an accurate determination of molar mass, overcoming the difficulties of size-exclusion chromatography.