Biomedical subjects

Margaret Speed Ricci

Publications and source records attributed to Margaret Speed Ricci.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Optimization of a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry method for characterizing recombinant antibody heterogeneity and stability.

An enhanced analytical RP-HPLC/MS method was developed for monitoring the stability and production of intact and fragmented monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). The use of high column temperatures (70-80 degrees C), organic solvents with high eluotropic strength coefficients (isopropyl and n-propyl alcohols), and Zorbax StableBond columns, were critical for good recovery and resolution of immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) and IgG2 monoclonal antibodies. Using this method, cleavage products of a degraded IgG1 antibody were clearly separated and identified by in-line electrospray ionization time-of-flight (ESI-TOF) mass spectrometry generating exact masses and unique terminal ladder sequences. The glycosylation profile, including mapping of the terminal galactose and fucose heterogeneity of the N-linked sugars, was determined by mass spectrometry of intact MAbs. In addition, we discovered that several IgG2 MAbs exhibited greater structural heterogeneity compared to IgG1s. Mass spectral characterization data and reduction data suggested that the heterogeneity is disulfide related. This reversed-phase LC/MS method represents a key advancement in monitoring intact MAb production and stability.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Quantitative methods for developing Fc mutants with extended half-lives.

Fc mutants with increased binding affinity for the neonatal receptor, FcRn, exhibit increased half-lives in vivo, and represent an attractive means for extending the half-lives of therapeutic antibodies. The half-lives of other therapeutic molecules (e.g., proteins) may also be extended by conjugating them to Fc fragments, thus decreasing the frequency of patient injections and allowing the administration of low and potentially nontoxic concentrations of the therapeutics. To investigate the possibility for further increasing the half-life of Fc, a pair of quantitative methods is presented to complement combinatorial screening and in vivo testing. Specifically, a simple molecular modeling procedure was developed to predict relative Gibbs free energies of binding values (DeltaDeltaGbind) between Fc and FcRn across different mutants and species. This procedure was found to reasonably reproduce experimental DeltaDeltaGbind values from our experiments and the literature, and may be used as an initial screen to explore Fc sequence space more fully prior to experimental testing. In addition, a mathematical model of Fc trafficking was formulated and combined with a cell-level pulse-chase assay to obtain a quantitative recycling parameter in human T84 cells. This Fc recycling parameter was found to be correlated with binding affinity, but captures the pH dependent nature of the interaction between Fc and FcRn and may serve as an additional screen following combinatorial experiments.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Effects of excipients on the hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidation of methionine residues in granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to elucidate the different mechanisms of action of different excipients on the oxidation of Met1, Met122, Met127, and Met138 in granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) by using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. METHODS: The oxidation of Met1, Met127, and Met138 was quantified by peptide mapping analysis. The oxidation of Met122 has biphasic oxidation kinetics with a faster second phase. Therefore, the oxidation of Met122 was quantified by two different methods: peptide mapping analysis for the first phase of oxidation and direct reverse-phase HPLC for the second phase of oxidation. RESULTS: The current work reveals that the preferential excluding excipients sorbitol, sucrose, and trehalose, in the concentration range 0-30% (w/v), and the preferential binding excipients urea and guanidine hydrochloride, in the concentration range 0-0.8 M, do not affect the oxidation of methionine residues in G-CSF at pH 4.5. The chelating agents citrate and EDTA have different effects on the rates of oxidation of methionine residues in G-CSF. At low concentrations, citrate decreases the rates, while at high concentrations, citrate increases the rates. EDTA decreases the rates of oxidation of methionine residues in G-CSF, such that its effect becomes more and more as its concentration is increased from 0 to 200 mM. The efficacy of EDTA on the rates of oxidation of the four methionine residues in G-CSF follows the order Met122 > Met127 > Met138 > Met1. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that EDTA can protect the methionine residues in G-CSF against oxidation induced by hydrogen peroxide. The more exposed the methionine residue is, the more difficult it is to be protected by EDTA. The mechanism may be due to the specific ion binding of EDTA to proteins.

Excipients↗

PubMed2004

Development of an analytical reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry method for characterization of recombinant antibodies.

Analytical characterization of monoclonal antibodies has been hindered by the lack of appropriate chromatographic methods to be used in conjunction with high-resolution MS. Current methodologies for standard RP-HPLC are incompatible with antibodies due to irreproducibility, low recovery, short column lifetimes, and poor resolution of degradation products. An analytical RP-HPLC-MS method was developed for monitoring and characterizing intact IgG1antibodies. Key parameters required for improved chromatographic resolution included long alkyl chains of the stationary phase (Zorbax SB300 C8), column temperatures elevated to 65-70 degrees C and combination of trifluoroacetic acid and heptafluorobutyric acid ion-pairing agents. RP chromatographic separation of degradation species and C-terminal lysine variants along with the characterization of glycosylation profile by mass spectrometry demonstrates the capability of this method for whole antibody analysis.

Antibodies↗

PubMed2004

A comprehensive picture of non-site specific oxidation of methionine residues by peroxides in protein pharmaceuticals.

In this article, a comprehensive picture of the oxidation of protein pharmaceuticals by peroxides is developed based on our earlier computational and experimental studies. We propose a new mechanism, the water-mediated mechanism, for the oxidation of methionine residues, and it has been shown to satisfy all available experimental data including new data reported here. Based on the water-mediated mechanism, we found a structural property, average 2-shell water coordination number, that correlates well to the relative rates of oxidation of methionine groups. We used this to study the oxidation of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and 1-34 human parathyroid hormone hPTH(1-34). We believe that this comprehensive picture should aid researchers in the pharmaceutical sciences to develop solvent formulations for therapeutic proteins in a more rational way.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed2004

Effects of antioxidants on the hydrogen peroxide-mediated oxidation of methionine residues in granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and human parathyroid hormone fragment 13-34.

PURPOSE: The effects and mechanisms of different antioxidants, methionine, glutathione, acetylcysteine, and ascorbic acid (AscH2), on the oxidation of methionine residues in granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and human parathyroid hormone fragment 13-34 (hPTH 13-34) by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) were quantified and analyzed. METHODS: The rates of oxidation of methionine residues in G-CSF were determined by peptide mapping analyses, and the oxidation of methionine residue in hPTH 13-34 was quantified by reverse-phase HPLC. RESULTS: At pH 4.5, free methionine reduces, glutathione and acetylcysteine have no obvious effect on, and AscH2 promotes the rates of oxidation of methionine residues in G-CSF. The H2O2-induced oxidation rate constants for free methionine, acetylcysteine, and glutathione at pH 4.5 were measured to be 32.07, 1.00, and 1.63 M(-1)h(-1), respectively, while the oxidation rate constant for Met1, the most readily oxidizable methionine residue in G-CSF, is 13.95 M(-1)h(-1). Therefore, the different effects of free methionine, acetylcysteine, and glutathione on the rates of oxidation of methionine residues in G-CSF are consistent with their different reactivity toward oxidation by H2O2. By using hPTH 13-34, the effect of AscH2 on the H2O2-induced oxidation of methionine residue was quantified, and the mechanisms involved were proposed. Because of the presence of trace transition metal ions in solution, at low concentrations, AscH2 is prone to be a prooxidant, increasing the hydroxyl radical (.OH) production rate via Fenton-type reactions. In addition to peroxide oxidation, these radicals lead to the degradation of hPTH 13-34 to smaller peptide fragments. At high concentrations, AscH2 tends to act as an OH scavenger. EDTA inhibits OH production and thus eliminates the degradation of hPTH 13-34 by forming complexes with transition metal ions. However, the rate of oxidation of the methionine residue in hPTH 13-34 increases as the concentration of AscH2 is increased from 0 to 200 mM, and the reason for this is still not clear. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that free methionine is an effective antioxidant to protect G-CSF against methionine oxidation at pH 4.5. Acetylcysteine and glutathione are not effective antioxidants at pH 4.5. Their oxidation rates at different pH values imply that they would be much more effective antioxidants than free methionine at alkaline conditions. AscH2 is a powerful electron donor. It acts as a prooxidant in the conditions in this study and is unlikely to prevent oxidation by H2O2 in protein formulation, whether or not EDTA is present.

Antioxidants↗

PubMed2004

Common structural stability properties of 4-helical bundle cytokines: possible physiological and pharmaceutical consequences.

Biological activity and clinical efficacy of a therapeutic protein are contingent upon the structural stability, bioavailability, and clearance rates of the protein. In this review, we examine the class of 4-helical bundle cytokines for common stability properties that may affect biological structure and efficacy. Three critical stability features that are hallmarks of this class of cytokines are the pH dependence of structural stability, the presence of folding intermediates, and the population of aggregation intermediates. We hypothesize that certain cytokines have increased stability in acid to enable receptor-mediated clearance, and that reengineering local endocytic trafficking can result in dramatic improvements in global serum half-life and therapeutic efficacy. The common feature of folding and aggregation intermediates has implications on kinetic folding pathways, membrane permeability, solubility, and precipitation properties that are critical for commercial production, formulation, and delivery. Understanding the structural stability properties of this class of cytokines may help elucidate new approaches to improving therapeutic efficacy.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

pH Dependence of structural stability of interleukin-2 and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.

After a cytokine binds to its receptor on the cell surface (pH approximately 7), the complex is internalized into acidic endosomal compartments (pH approximately 5-6), where partially unfolded intermediates can form. The nature of these structural transitions was studied for wild-type interleukin-2 (IL-2) and wild-type granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). A noncoincidence of denaturation transitions in the secondary and tertiary structure of IL-2 and tertiary structural perturbations in G-CSF suggest the presence of an intermediate state for each, a common feature of this structural family of four-helical bundle proteins. Unexpectedly, both IL-2 and G-CSF display monotonic increases in stability as the pH is decreased from 7 to 4. We hypothesize that such cytokines with cell-based clearance mechanisms in vivo may have evolved to help stabilize endosomal complexes for sorting to lysosomal degradation. We show that mutants of both IL-2 and G-CSF have differential stabilities to their wild-type counterparts as a function of pH, and that these differences may explain the differences in ligand trafficking and depletion. Further understanding of the structural changes accompanying unfolding may help guide cytokine design with respect to ligand binding, endocytic trafficking, and, consequently, therapeutic efficacy.

Endocytosis↗