AZD7442
(tixagevimab
[AZD8895]/cilgavimab [AZD1061])
is a monoclonal
antibody (mAb) combination in development for the prevention and treatment
of coronavirus disease 2019. Traditionally, bioanalysis of mAbs is
performed using ligand binding assays (LBAs), which offer sensitivity,
robustness, and ease of implementation. However, LBAs frequently require
generation of critical reagents that typically take several months.
Instead, we developed a highly sensitive (5 ng/mL limit of quantification)
method using a hybrid LBA-liquid chromatography coupled with tandem
mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) approach for quantification of the two
codosed antibodies in serum and nasal lining fluid (NLF), a rare matrix.
The method was optimized by careful selection of multiple reaction
monitoring, capture reagents, magnetic beads, chromatographic conditions,
evaluations of selectivity, and matrix effect. The final assay used
viral spike protein receptor-binding domain as capture reagent and
signature proteotypic peptides from the complementarity-determining
region of each mAb for detection. In contrast to other methods of
similar/superior sensitivity, our approach did not require multidimensional
separations and can be operated in an analytical flow regime, ensuring
high throughput and robustness required for clinical analysis at scale.
The sensitivity of this method significantly exceeds typical sensitivity
of ∼100 ng/mL for analytical flow 1D LBA-LC-MS/MS methods for
large macromolecules, such as antibodies. Furthermore, infection and
vaccination status did not impact method performance, ensuring method
robustness and applicability to a broad patient population. This report
demonstrated the general applicability of the hybrid LBA-LC-MS/MS
approach to platform quantification of antibodies with high sensitivity
and reproducibility, with specialized extension to matrices of increasing
interest, such as NLF.