Decreasing hydrophobicity or shielding hydrophobic areas of CH2 attenuates low pH-induced IgG4 aggregation.

Protein aggregation is a major challenge in the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Several stressors can cause protein aggregation, including temperature shifts, mechanical forces, freezing-thawing cycles, oxidants, reductants, and extreme pH. When antibodies are exposed to low pH conditions, aggregation increases dramatically. However, low pH treatment is widely used in protein A affinity chromatography and low pH viral inactivation procedures. In the development of an IgG4 subclass antibody, mAb1-IgG4 showed a strong tendency to aggregate when temporarily exposed to low pH conditions. Our findings showed that the aggregation of mAb1-IgG4 under low pH conditions is determined by the stability of the Fc. The CH2 domain is the least stable domain in mAb1-IgG4. The L309E, Q311D, and Q311E mutations in the CH2 domain significantly reduced the aggregation propensity, which could be attributed to a reduction in the hydrophobicity of the CH2 domain. Protein stabilizers, such as sucrose and mannose, could also attenuate low pH-induced mAb1-IgG4 aggregation by shielding hydrophobic areas and increasing protein stability. Our findings provide valuable strategies for managing the aggregation of protein therapeutics with a human IgG4 backbone.
Competing Interests: QW, CC, KC, LS, QL, and JL were employed by the company Zhuhai United Laboratories Co., Ltd. CC, SW, and HH were employed by the company The United Biotechnology (Zhuhai Hengqin) Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2023 Wu, Cao, Wei, He, Chen, Su, Liu, Li, Lai and Li.)