Search

Fibrillization of the microtubule-associated protein tau has been recognized as one of the signature pathologies of the nervous system in Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and other tauopathies. The conformational transition of tau in the fibrillization process, tau monomer to soluble aggregates to fibrils in particular, remains unclear. Here we report on the use of hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) in combination with other biochemical approaches, including Thioflavin S fluorescence measurements, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and Western blotting to understand the heparin-induced tau's fibrillization. HDX-MS studies including anti-tau antibody epitope mapping experiments provided molecular level details of the full-length tau's conformational dynamics and its regional solvent accessibility upon soluble aggregates formation. The results demonstrate that R3 region in the full-length tau's microtubule binding repeat region (MTBR) is stabilized in the aggregation process, leaving both N and C terminal regions to be solvent exposed in the soluble aggregates and fibrils. The findings also illustrate the practical utility of orthogonal analytical methodologies for the characterization of protein higher order structure. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

The precise and unambiguous elucidation and characterization of interactions between a high affinity recognition entity and its cognate protein provides important insights for the design and development of drugs with optimized properties and efficacy. In oncology, one important target protein has been shown to be the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) through the development of therapeutic anticancer antibodies that are selective inhibitors of EGFR activity. More recently, smaller protein derived from the 10th type III domain of human fibronectin termed an adnectin has also been shown to inhibit EGFR in clinical studies. The mechanism of EGFR inhibition by either an adnectin or an antibody results from specific binding of the high affinity protein to the extracellular portion of EGFR (exEGFR) in a manner that prevents phosphorylation of the intracellular kinase domain of the receptor and thereby blocks intracellular signaling. Here, the structural changes induced upon binding were studied by probing the solution conformations of full length exEGFR alone and bound to a cognate adnectin through hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX MS). The effects of binding in solution were identified and compared with the structure of a bound complex determined by X-ray crystallography.ᅟ

Aggregation of protein therapeutics has long been a concern across different stages of manufacturing processes in the biopharmaceutical industry. It is often indicative of aberrant protein therapeutic higher-order structure. In this study, the aggregation propensity of a human Fc-fusion protein therapeutic was characterized. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) was applied to examine the conformational dynamics of dimers collected from a bioreactor. HDX-MS data combined with spatial aggregation propensity calculations revealed a potential aggregation interface in the Fc domain. This study provides a general strategy for the characterization of the aggregation propensity of Fc-fusion proteins at the molecular level.Graphical Abstract.

PEGylation is the covalent attachment of polyethylene glycol to proteins, and it can be used to alter immunogenicity, circulating half life and other properties of therapeutic proteins. To determine the impact of PEGylation on protein conformation, we applied hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX MS) to analyze granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) upon PEGylation as a model system. The combined use of HDX automation technology and data analysis software allowed reproducible and robust measurements of the deuterium incorporation levels for peptic peptides of both PEGylated and non-PEGylated G-CSF. The results indicated that significant differences in deuterium incorporation were induced by PEGylation of G-CSF, although the overall changes observed were quite small. PEGylation did not result in gross conformational rearrangement of G-CSF. The data complexity often encountered in HDX MS measurements was greatly reduced through a data processing and presentation format designed to facilitate the comparison process. This study demonstrates the practical utility of HDX MS for comparability studies, process monitoring, and protein therapeutic characterization in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are emerging modalities in the pharmaceutical industry. Characterization of ADC’s drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) becomes a key assessment because of its importance in ADC efficacy and safety. DAR characterization by conventional intact protein MS analysis, however, is challenging because of high heterogeneity of ADC samples. The analysis often requires protein deglycosylation, disulfide-bond reduction, or partial fragmentation. In this study, we illustrate the practical utility of ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) in a routine LC/MS workflow for DAR measurements. This strategy allows analyte “cleanup” in the gas phase, providing significant improvement of signal-to-noise ratios of ADC intact mass spectra for accurate DAR measurements. In addition, protein drift time analysis offers a new dimension in monitoring the changes of DAR in lot-to-lot analysis.

Introduced in the late 1980s as a reducing reagent, Tris (2-carboxyethyl) phosphine (TCEP) has now become one of the most widely used protein reductants. To date, only a few studies on its side reactions have been published. We report the observation of a side reaction that cleaves protein backbones under mild conditions by fracturing the cysteine residues, thus generating heterogeneous peptides containing different moieties from the fractured cysteine. The peptide products were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). Peptides with a primary amine and a carboxylic acid as termini were observed, and others were found to contain amidated or formamidated carboxy termini, or formylated or glyoxylic amino termini. Formamidation of the carboxy terminus and the formation of glyoxylic amino terminus were unexpected reactions since both involve breaking of carbon—carbon bonds in cysteine.