At-line N-linked glycan profiling for monoclonal antibodies with advanced sample preparation and high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

N-linked glycosylation is a post-translational modification that occurs on many proteins during biosynthesis. The profile of different glycans on the protein is a critical quality attribute of some recombinant biopharmaceutical proteins including monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Methods for profiling glycan should be robust, fast, and sensitive. Isolating glycans from proteins and tagging a label on glycans is the most commonly used technique for glycan profiling. Currently, existing protocols for sample preparation can be complicated, time-consuming, and expensive, which can limit the wide adaptation of glycan profiling methods. As a further barrier to use, an expensive ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) system is frequently required for the profile. In this article, a low cost and easily-used workflow of sample preparation is coupled with a standard high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system to achieve comparable results to UHPLC. The number of steps required in the protocol and the time, as well as the cost associated with the sample preparation, is significantly reduced, while maintaining robust analytical performance. We describe the creation and validation of a human serum IgG glycan library to be used as the calibration standard, and successful profiling of glycoforms from a variety of mAbs.

Keywords: Critical quality attribute; High resolution profile; High-performance liquid chromatography; Monoclonal antibody; N-linked glycosylation; Sample preparation.