Development and qualification of an antibody rapid deglycosylation method

N-linked glycosylation can influence the biological activity and safety of an antibody as well as be a measure of the consistency of the production process. The released N-glycans is an important part of the development of a therapeutic antibody. The traditional method for N-glycan analysis requires complex and laborious sample preparation and lengthy analysis time. Two preparation steps with limited control are removal of the antibody backbone by ice-cold ethanol precipitation and water removal before 2-AB fluorescent dye labeling. Simplification of the sample preparation and better control of key steps that allows for the characterization/quantitation of glycans during all stages of development of a therapeutic antibody is desired. Recently Prozyme introduced a rapid deglycosylation kit and a rapid tagging kit that address some of these issues. The deglycosylation kit immobilizes the antibody on a membrane, thereby eliminating the precipitation step. An instant fluorescent tag kit eliminates the water removal before the 2-AB labeling step. In addition use of a new chromatography column can improve the glycan resolution and shorten the analysis time. The evaluation and qualification of the Rapid Deglycosylation Kit (RDK) and instant 2-AB tagging with the improved chromatography are highlighted. (c) 2012 The International Alliance for Biological Standardization. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.