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Antibody drug conjugates enable the targeted delivery of potent chemotherapeutic agents directly to cancerous cells. They are made by the chemical conjugation of cytotoxins to monoclonal antibodies, which can be achieved by first reducing interchain disulfide bonds followed by conjugation of the resulting free thiols with drugs. This process yields a controlled, but heterogeneous, population of conjugated products that contains species with various numbers of drugs linked to different former interchain disulfide cysteine residues on the antibodies. We have developed a mathematical approach using inputs from capillary electrophoresis and hydrophobic interaction chromatography to determine the positional isomer distribution within a population of antibody drug conjugates. The results are confirmed by analyzing isolated samples of specific drug-to-antibody ratio species. The procedure is amenable to rapid determination of positional isomer distributions and features low material requirements. A survey of several antibody drug conjugates based on the same IgG framework and small molecule drug combination has shown a very similar distribution of isomers among all of the molecules using this technique, suggesting a robust conjugation process.

During production of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAb), it is highly desirable to remove and control antibody aggregates in the manufacturing process to minimize the potential risk of immunogenicity to patients. During process development for the production of a recombinant IgG in a CHO cell line, we observed atypical high variability from 1 to 20% mAb aggregates formed during cell culture that negatively impacted antibody purification. Analytical characterization revealed the IgG aggregates were mediated by hydrophobic interactions likely caused by misfolded antibody during intracellular processing. Strikingly, data analysis showed an inverse correlation of lower cell culture temperature producing higher aggregate levels. All cultures at 37°C exhibited ≤ 5% aggregates at harvest. Aggregate levels increased 4-12-fold in 33°C cultures when compared to 37°C, with a corresponding 2-4-fold increase in heavy chain (HC) and light chain (LC) mRNA. Additionally, 37°C cases showed a greater excess of LC to HC mRNA levels. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone expression and ER size also increased 25-75% at 33°C versus 37°C but to a lesser extent than LC and HC mRNA, consistent with a potential limiting ER folding capacity at 33°C for this cell line. Finally, we identified a 2-5-fold increase in mAb aggregate formation at 33°C compared to 37°C cultures for three additional CHO cell lines. Taken together, our observations indicate that low culture temperature can increase antibody aggregate formation in CHO cells by increasing LC and HC transcripts coupled with limited ER machinery.

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