The fragmentation of positively charged gas-phase samples of peptides is used to infer the primary structure of such molecules. In electron capture dissociation (ECD) experiments, very low-energy electrons attach to the sample and rupture bonds to effect the fragmentation. It turns out that ECD fragmentation tends to produce cleavage of very specific types of bonds. In earlier works by this group, it has been suggested that the presence of positive charges produces stabilizing Coulomb potentials that allow low-energy electrons to exothermically attach to σ* orbitals of certain bonds and thus to cleave those bonds. In the present effort, the stabilizing effects of Coulomb potentials due to proximal positive charges are examined for a small model peptide molecule that contains a wide range of bond types. Direct attachment of an electron to the σ* orbitals of eight different bonds as well as indirect σ bond cleavage, in which an electron first binds to a carbonyl CdO π* orbital, are examined using ab initio methods. It is found that direct attachment to and subsequent cleavage of any of the eight σ bonds is not likely except for highly positively charged samples. It is also found that attachment to a CdO π* orbital followed by cleavage of the nitrogen-to-R-carbon bond is the most likely outcome. Interestingly, this bond cleavage is the one that is seen most commonly in ECD experiments. So, the results presented here seem to offer good insight into one aspect of the ECD process, and they provide a means by which one can estimate (on the basis of a simple Coulomb energy formula) which bonds may be susceptible to cleavage by low-energy electron attachment.

Anti-PEG antibodies have been reported to mediate the accelerated clearance of PEG-conjugated proteins and liposomes, all of which contain methoxyPEG (mPEG). The goal of this research was to assess the role of the methoxy group in the immune responses to mPEG conjugates and the potential advantages of replacing mPEG with hydroxyPEG (HO-PEG). Rabbits were immunized with mPEG, HO-PEG, or t-butoxyPEG (t-BuO-PEG) conjugates of human serum albumin, human interferon-α, or porcine uricase as adjuvant emulsions. Assay plates for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were coated with mPEG, HO-PEG, or t-BuO-PEG conjugates of the non-cross-reacting protein, porcine superoxide dismutase (SOD). In sera from rabbits immunized with HO-PEG conjugates of interferon-α or uricase, the ratio of titers of anti-PEG antibodies detected on mPEG-SOD over HO-PEG-SOD (“relative titer”) had a median of 1.1 (range 0.9–1.5). In contrast, sera from rabbits immunized with mPEG conjugates of three proteins had relative titers with a median of 3.0 (range 1.1–20). Analyses of sera from rabbits immunized with t-BuO-PEG-albumin showed that t-butoxy groups are more immunogenic than methoxy groups. Adding Tween 20 or Tween 80 to buffers used to wash the assay plates, as is often done in ELISAs, greatly reduced the sensitivity of detection of anti-PEG antibodies. Competitive ELISAs revealed that the affinities of antibodies raised against mPEG-uricase were c. 70 times higher for 10 kDa mPEG than for 10 kDa PEG diol and that anti-PEG antibodies raised against mPEG conjugates of three proteins had >1000 times higher affinities for albumin conjugates with c. 20 mPEGs than for analogous HO-PEG-albumin conjugates. Overall, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that antibodies with high affinity for methoxy groups contribute to the loss of efficacy of mPEG conjugates, especially if multiply-PEGylated. Using monofunctionally activated HO-PEG instead of mPEG in preparing conjugates for clinical use might decrease this undesirable effect.

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