Characterization of a monoclonal antibody by native and denaturing top-down mass spectrometry

Established in recent years as an important approach to unraveling the heterogeneity of intact monoclonal antibodies, native mass spectrometry has been rarely utilized for sequencing these complex biomolecules via tandem mass spectrometry. Typically, top-down mass spectrometry has been performed starting from highly charged precursor ions obtained via electrospray ionization under denaturing conditions (i.e., in the presence of organic solvents and acidic pH). Here we systematically benchmark four distinct ion dissociation methods – namely higher-energy collisional dissociation, electron transfer dissociation, electron transfer dissociation/higher-energy collisional dissociation, and 213 nm ultraviolet photodissociation – in their capability to characterize a therapeutic monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab, starting from denatured and native-like precursor ions. Interestingly, native top-down mass spectrometry results in higher sequence coverage than the experiments carried out under denaturing conditions, with the exception of ultraviolet photodissociation. Globally, electron transfer dissociation followed by collision-based activation of product ions generates the largest number of backbone cleavages in disulfide protected regions, including the complementarity determining regions, regardless of electrospray ionization conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that native mass spectrometry can certainly be used for the gas-phase sequencing of whole monoclonal antibodies, although the dissociation of denatured precursor ions still returns a few backbone cleavages not identified in native experiments. Finally, a comparison of the fragmentation maps obtained under denaturing and native conditions strongly points towards disulfide bonds as the primary reason behind the largely overlapping dissociation patterns.