scholarly journals Epitope Screening Using Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry (HDX-MS): An Optimized Workflow for Accelerated Evaluation of Lead Monoclonal Antibodies

Author(s):  
Shaolong Zhu ◽  
Peter Liuni ◽  
Tricia Chen ◽  
Camille Houy ◽  
Derek Wilson ◽  
...  

Background: Epitope mapping is an increasingly important aspect of biotherapeutic and vaccine development. Recent advances in therapeutic antibody design and production has enabled candidate mAbs to be identified at a rapidly increasing rate resulting in a significant bottleneck in the characterization of ‘structural’ epitopes, that are challenging to determine using existing high throughput epitope mapping tools. Here, Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry (HDX-MS) epitope screening workflow was introduced that is well suited for accelerated characterization of epitopes with a common antigen. Main methods and major results: The method is demonstrated on set of 6 candidate mAbs targeting Pertactin (PRN). Using this approach, five of the six epitopes was unambiguously determined using two HDX mixing timepoints in 24 hours total run time, corresponding to substantial decrease in the instrument time required to map a single epitope using conventional HDX workflows. Conclusion: An accelerated HDX-MS epitope screening workflow was developed. The two-timepoint ‘screening’ workflow mapped all six mAbs and generated high confidence epitopes for five of the six mAbs assayed. The substantial improvement in the rate of data collection can advance HDX-MS for higher throughput investigations supporting the ability to evaluate a broader number of mAb candidates at an earlier stage of vaccine development.

2019 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-417
Author(s):  
Irena Dapic ◽  
Ivone Jakasa ◽  
Renata Kobetic ◽  
Lidija Brkljacic

Ceramides are a lipid subclass of the sphingolipids that show large structural diversity. Structural characterization of the ceramides (CERs) can lead to better understanding of their role and function in the biological system. Here we investigated representatives of NP (CER III, CER IIIB) and AP ceramide classes (CER VI) that contain phytosphingosine (P) backbone. Ceramides were characterized in positive ionization mode by hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS). Fragmentation in positive ionization mode of the CER III and CER VI resulted in abundant ions assigned to phytosphingosine moiety at m/z 282, 300 and 318. HDX-MS of fragments showed increase in m/z of corresponding ions confirming the exchange of deuterium. In negative ionisation spectra multiple fragment ions were assigned to fatty acyl (RCOO–) moiety. Presence of RCOO– allowed unambiguous identification of CER III and CER IIIB which were distinguished by the presence of double bond on fatty acyl chain.


Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
Oliver Ozohanics ◽  
Attila Ambrus

Hydrogen/Deuterium eXchange Mass Spectrometry (HDX-MS) is a rapidly evolving technique for analyzing structural features and dynamic properties of proteins. It may stand alone or serve as a complementary method to cryo-electron-microscopy (EM) or other structural biology approaches. HDX-MS is capable of providing information on individual proteins as well as large protein complexes. Owing to recent methodological advancements and improving availability of instrumentation, HDX-MS is becoming a routine technique for some applications. When dealing with samples of low to medium complexity and sizes of less than 150 kDa, conformation and ligand interaction analyses by HDX-MS are already almost routine applications. This is also well supported by the rapid evolution of the computational (software) background that facilitates the analysis of the obtained experimental data. HDX-MS can cope at times with analytes that are difficult to tackle by any other approach. Large complexes like viral capsids as well as disordered proteins can also be analyzed by this method. HDX-MS has recently become an established tool in the drug discovery process and biopharmaceutical development, as it is now also capable of dissecting post-translational modifications and membrane proteins. This mini review provides the reader with an introduction to the technique and a brief overview of the most common applications. Furthermore, the most challenging likely applications, the analyses of glycosylated and membrane proteins, are also highlighted.


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