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From a structural point of view, the complete characterization of ADCs is a challenging task due to their high complexity. ADCs combine the heterogeneity of the initial antibody to the variability associated with the conjugation strategy, the manufacturing process, and the storage. Given the inherent complexity of these biomolecules, online comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC × LC) is an attractive technique to address the challenges associated with ADC characterization. Compared to conventional one-dimensional liquid chromatography techniques (1D-LC), LC × LC combines two different and complementary separation systems. In the context of ADC analysis, LC × LC has been proven to be a rapid and efficient analytical tool: (1) to provide a higher resolving power by increasing the overall peak capacity and thus allowing to gain more information within a single run and (2) to allow mass spectrometry (MS) coupling with some chromatographic techniques that are not MS-compatible and hence to facilitate the structural elucidation of ADCs. In this chapter, we present the coupling of different chromatographic techniques including hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC), reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), ion exchange chromatography (IEX), and hydrophilic liquid chromatography (HILIC). The interest of HIC × SEC, SEC × SEC, HIC × RPLC, IEX × RPLC, RPLC × RPLC, and HILIC × RPLC, all hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), is discussed in the context of the characterization of ADCs.

From a structural point of view, the complete characterization of ADCs is a challenging task due to their high complexity. ADCs combine the heterogeneity of the initial antibody to the variability associated with the conjugation strategy, the manufacturing process, and the storage. Given the inherent complexity of these biomolecules, online comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC × LC) is an attractive technique to address the challenges associated with ADC characterization. Compared to conventional one-dimensional liquid chromatography techniques (1D-LC), LC × LC combines two different and complementary separation systems. In the context of ADC analysis, LC × LC has been proven to be a rapid and efficient analytical tool: (1) to provide a higher resolving power by increasing the overall peak capacity and thus allowing to gain more information within a single run and (2) to allow mass spectrometry (MS) coupling with some chromatographic techniques that are not MS-compatible and hence to facilitate the structural elucidation of ADCs. In this chapter, we present the coupling of different chromatographic techniques including hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC), reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), ion exchange chromatography (IEX), and hydrophilic liquid chromatography (HILIC). The interest of HIC × SEC, SEC × SEC, HIC × RPLC, IEX × RPLC, RPLC × RPLC, and HILIC × RPLC, all hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), is discussed in the context of the characterization of ADCs.

International audience; Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) has known a strong regain of interest for the last 10 years, especially in the field of pharmaceutical analysis. Besides the development and validation of the SFC method in one individual laboratory, it is also important to demonstrate its applicability and transferability to various laboratories around the world. Therefore, an inter-laboratory study was conducted and published for the first time in SFC, to assess method reproducibility, and evaluate whether this chromatographic technique could become a reference method for quality control (QC) laboratories. This study involved 19 participating laboratories from 4 continents and 9 different countries. It included 5 academic groups, 3 demonstration laboratories at analytical instrument companies, 10 pharmaceutical companies and 1 food company. In the initial analysis of the study results, consistencies within- and between-laboratories were deeply examined. In the subsequent analysis, the method reproducibility was estimated taking into account variances in replicates, between-days and between-laboratories. The results obtained were compared with the literature values for liquid chromatography (LC) in the context of impurities determination. Repeatability and reproducibility variances were found to be similar or better than those described for LC methods, and highlighted the adequacy of the SFC method for QC analyses. The results demonstrated the excellent and robust quantitative performance of SFC. Consequently, this complementary technique is recognized on equal merit to other chromatographic techniques.

International audience; There are currently two main techniques allowing the analytical characterization of interchain cysteine-linked antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) under native conditions, namely, hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and native mass spectrometry (MS). HIC is a chromatographic technique allowing the evaluation of drug load profile and calculation of average drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) in quality control laboratories. Native MS offers structural insights into multiple ADC critical quality attributes, thanks to accurate mass measurement. However, both techniques can lead to misinterpretations or incomplete characterization when used as standalone methods. Online coupling of both techniques can thus potentially be of great interest, but the presence of large amounts of nonvolatile salts in HIC mobile phases makes it not easily directly compatible with native MS. Here, we present an innovative multidimensional analytical approach combining comprehensive online two-dimensional (2D)-chromatography that consists of HIC and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), to ion mobility and mass spectrometry (IM-MS) for performing analytical characterization of ADCs under nondenaturing conditions. This setup enabled comprehensive and streamlined characterization of both native and forced degraded ADC samples. The proposed 4D methodology might be more generally adapted for online all-in-one HIC×SEC-IM×MS analysis of single proteins or analysis of protein complexes in nondenaturing conditions.

International audience; Comprehensive on-line two-dimensional liquid chromatography is an attractive technique to enhance peak capacity and deal with complex samples. Yet, its optimization is not straightforward and requires to take into account a huge number of parameters to finally obtain a good compromise between different criteria which are often conflicting. In this study, we propose a procedure for RPLC × RPLC separations able to define, for a given analysis time, the optimized LC × LC parameters for achieving the best compromise between high peak capacity and low dilution. This procedure makes use of both a prediction tool based on theoretical relationships and a Pareto-optimality approach to optimize these two criteria. The possibility to split the flow-rate of the first dimension before the interface is taken into account as well as the focusing effect in the second dimension. This optimization procedure is applied to the prediction of optimized conditions for the separation of peptides. The need for very short and efficient columns (typically 30 mm as column length and 1.3 μm as particle diameter) in the second dimension is clearly established whatever the geometry of the first dimension column. Furthermore it is shown that several sets of quite different conditions in the first dimension can lead to similar results and hence that additional quality descriptors are required to make a decision. RPLC × RPLC separations of a protein digest were carried out and the obtained results were found in very good accordance with the predicted ones. Our results were compared to the top results reported in the literature for 1D-RPLC separations of peptides. More than 4-fold increase in peak capacity (5100 vs 1150) at 200 min has been obtained. Furthermore a 40-fold gain in analysis time (1 h vs 40 h) was obtained for achieving 1800 as effective peak capacity which is close to the highest peak capacity reported in 1D-RPLC for the separation of peptides.

This study was devoted to the search for conditions leading to highly efficient sub-hour separations of complex peptide samples with the objective of coupling to mass spectrometry. In this context, conditions for one dimensional reversed phase liquid chromatography (1D-RPLC) were optimized on the basis of a kinetic approach while conditions for on-line comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography using reversed phase in both dimensions (on-line RPLCxRPLC) were optimized on the basis of a Pareto-optimal approach. Maximizing the peak capacity while minimizing the dilution factor for different analysis times (down to 5min) were the two objectives under consideration. For gradient times between 5 and 60min, 15cm was found to be the best column length in RPLC with sub-2μm particles under 800bar as system pressure. In RPLCxRPLC, for less than one hour as first dimension gradient time, the sampling rate was found to be a key parameter in addition to conventional parameters including column dimension, particle size, flow-rate and gradient conditions in both dimensions. It was shown that the optimum sampling rate was as low as one fraction per peak for very short gradient times (i.e. below 10min). The quality descriptors obtained under optimized RPLCxRPLC conditions were compared to those obtained under optimized RPLC conditions. Our experimental results for peptides, obtained with state of the art instrumentation, showed that RPLCxRPLC could outperform 1D-RPLC for gradient times longer than 5min. In 60min, the same peak intensity (same dilution) was observed with both techniques but with a 3-fold lower injected amount in RPLCxRPLC. A significant increase of the signal-to-noise ratio mainly due to a strong noise reduction was observed in RPLCxRPLC-MS compared to the one in 1D-RPLC-MS making RPLCxRPLC-MS a promising technique for peptide identification in complex matrices.

https://smmap2017.sciencesconf.org/; International audience; Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) are tripartite molecules consisting of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) onto which highly cytotoxic small molecules are conjugated by cleavable or non-cleavable link- ers. They show better efficiency than canonical unconjugated mAbs, due to the synergic effect of mAb specificity for its target and the efficacy of the highly cytotoxic drug .There are currently two main techniques allowing the analytical characterization of cysteine linked anti- body drug conjugates under non denaturing conditions, namely hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) and native high resolution mass spectrometry.HIC is a chromatographic technique allowing the evaluation of drug load profile and calculation of av- erage drug to antibody ratio (DAR). High resolution mass spectrometry (MS) offers a wealth of information on the biochemical and biophysical properties of ADCs, thanks to accurate mass measurement. On-line coupling of both techniques can potentially be of great interest, but the presence of large amounts of non-volatile salts in HIC mobile phases make them non compatible with MS.Here, we present an innovative multidimensional analytical approach combining comprehensive on-line two dimensional chromatography (HICxSEC) to ion mobility and mass spectrometry (IM-MS) for per- forming analytical characterization of ADCs under non-denaturing conditions. Online hyphenation of non-denaturing 2D chromatography to 2D IM-MS enabled comprehensive and streamlined characteriza- tion of both native and stressed ADC samples.

This paper is the second part of a two-part series dedicated to the development of an on-line comprehensive HICxRPLC-UV/MS method for the characterization of a commercial inter-chain cysteine-linked ADC (brentuximab vedotin, Adcetris(®)). The first part focused on the optimization of the chromatographic conditions. In the second part of this series of papers, the structural characterization of the Brentuximab Vedotin was extensively discussed. With the combination of HIC and RPLC-MS data, the average DAR was easily measured in HIC and, at the same time, the predominant positional isomers were identified in RPLC-MS in one single injection. It was also demonstrated that the retention data obtained in the first and second dimensions was particularly useful to assist ADC characterization through the identification of sub-units. Using this methodology, the presence of odd DARs (1, 3 and 5) and their relative abundance was assessed by a systematic evaluation of HIC x RPLC-UV/MS data for both commercial and stressed ADC samples. Finally, once the exhaustive characterization of ADC was completed, MS could be conveniently replaced by UV detection to quickly assess the conformity of different ADCs batches.

International audience; Generally online comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC × LC) is used at preparative scale to prepare pure compounds from very complex samples which cannot be separated by one-dimensional liquid chromatography (1D-LC), even at analytical scale. In this work, micro-preparative online LC × LC was evaluated for the recovery of minor components from a simple mixture which can be separated by 1D-LC. This study is a proof of concept made from a test sample of four compounds which were separated by two 1D-LC methods and an LC × LC method based on the previous 1D-LC ones. The comparison of the preparative performance of the three methods shows that online LC × LC was able to achieve a 12-fold gain in amount recovered per injection compared to 1D-LC.

Two-dimensional liquid chromatography saw significant developments in handling the need to separate a rising number of highly complex samples. 2D-LC is the coupling of the separation of a complex sample by a first LC method to a second different LC method. This chapter details the different ways to perform such coupling 2D-LC methods: heart-cutting method; offline, online, and stop-flow methods, and comprehensive LC × LC. The critical parameter is peak capacity that is defined and calculated in classical LC and 2D-LC methods. It is linked to the orthogonality of the separation power of the two coupled LC methods. From a practical point of view, the effective peak capacity is compared with the theoretical one. Analysis time and dilution are also two critical parameters in 2D-LC that need to be considered. All parameters are presented describing a practical method development. Keywords: analysis time; comprehensive LC × LC; dilution; peak capacity; orthogonality; 2D-LC

On-line comprehensive Reversed Phase Liquid Chromatography×Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (RPLCxSFC) was investigated for the separation of complex samples of neutral compounds. The presented approach aimed at overcoming the constraints involved by such a coupling. The search for suitable conditions (stationary phases, injection solvent, injection volume, design of interface) are discussed with a view of ensuring a good transfer of the compounds between both dimensions, thereby allowing high effective peak capacity in the second dimension. Instrumental aspects that are of prime importance in on-line 2D separations, were also tackled (dwell volume, extra column volume and detection). After extensive preliminary studies, an on-line RPLCxSFC separation of a bio-oil aqueous extract was carried out and compared to an on-line RPLCxRPLC separation of the same sample in terms of orthogonality, peak capacity and sensitivity. Both separations were achieved in 100min. For this sample and in these optimized conditions, it is shown that RPLCxSFC (with Hypercarb and Acquity BEH-2EP as stationary phases in first and second dimension respectively) can generate a slightly higher peak capacity than RPLCxRPLC (with Hypercarb and Acquity CSH phenyl-hexyl as stationary phases in first and second dimension respectively) (620 vs 560). Such a result is essentially due to the high degree of orthogonality between RPLC and SFC which may balance for lesser peak efficiency obtained with SFC as second dimension. Finally, even though current limitations in SFC instrumentation (i.e. large extra-column volume, large dwell volume, no ultra-high pressure) can be critical at the moment for on-line 2D-separations, RPLCxSFC appears to be a promising alternative to RPLCxRPLC for the separation of complex samples of neutral compounds.

International audience; Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC x LC) has significantly improved the separation power of LC for complex samples. Our review opens with theoretical considerations about online LC x LC in order to explain why ultra-high-pressure LC (UHPLC) and more specifically, hightemperature (HT)-UHPLC are very convenient in the second dimension. We present some recent applications involving UHPLC in LC x LC. They cover a wide range of analytical fields, such as food analysis, life sciences, bioenergy and polymers