Protein therapeutic complexes, such as interchain cysteine-conjugated antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and siRNA-based antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (siRNA AOCs) that form noncovalent antibody subunit assemblies, are increasingly prevalent. Biotransformation assessments of protein therapeutics in complex biomatrices are often conducted using affinity capture coupled with reversed-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry under denaturing conditions (AC-MS, for clear distinction referred to as AC-denaturing MS), which allows direct measurement of clipping sites and relative quantification. However, AC-denaturing MS is unsuitable for analyzing the biotransformation of noncovalent protein therapeutics, as stability information is lost for the noncovalent component. This manuscript presents a novel biotransformation analysis method that preserves noncovalent interactions by combining affinity capture with neutral pH competitive elution and native size-exclusion chromatography-mass spectrometry, named native affinity capture-mass spectrometry (native AC-MS). The successful recovery of noncovalent complexes, including a cysteine-conjugated ADC mimic molecule and siRNA AOCs in various biomatrices, demonstrates the capability of native AC-MS to maintain noncovalent interactions during characterization. Optimized competitive elution exhibits a recovery comparable to that of standard denaturing elution. Native AC-MS offers sufficient sensitivity (low μg/mL limit of detection for the antibody) for in vivo studies, as demonstrated by an in vivo plasma siRNA AOC analysis example. To our knowledge, this is one of the first reports of the in vivo biotransformation analysis of siRNA AOCs. The method provides valuable information, including relative abundance and metabolite identification, and can be widely adapted for biotransformation of noncovalent modalities.
Laboratory workflows in pharmaceutical and biomedical research encode substantial tacit knowledge – expert judgment about failure conditions, decision branching logic, and contextual dependencies – that remains inaccessible to protocol documents, sensor streams, and existing biomedical ontologies. We present a repeatable structured expert elicitation methodology and federated Semantic Knowledge Graph (SKG) architecture for capturing and querying this knowledge, demonstrated through deployment at the Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology Department of Genentech. Knowledge is elicited via the Protocol Intelligence Co-pilot, a purpose-built AI interview agent that applies structured elicitation lenses to surface tacit procedural knowledge with expert-assigned confidence scores, producing graph representations across three tiers: program-level decision milestones, assay protocol knowledge, and physical execution infrastructure. Separately constructed subgraphs, exemplified by immunoassay (ELISA), quantitative mass spectrometry (LC-MS/PRM), and laboratory automation, are aligned through a shared upper ontology and queried as a single federated graph. Evaluation demonstrates seven query types structurally unavailable from any individual data source, including a cross-subgraph traversal that identifies automation-masked silent failures – conditions where execution logs report success while scientific validity is compromised. Critically, the MASKED_BY graph relationship encodes a class of laboratory risk invisible to current informatics platforms – the structural gap that prevents existing systems from reasoning about scientific validity. This architecture provides the semantic world model that AI laboratory agents currently lack: a queryable representation of where workflows fail silently, where human judgment is irreplaceable, and which execution assets mask rather than detect failure.
KRAS G12C is one of the most prevalent oncogenic mutations in nonsmall cell lung cancer. Herein we describe the discovery and optimization of divarasib (GDC-6036), an orally available, highly potent, and selective covalent KRAS G12C inhibitor. We demonstrate a significant noncovalent binding component of divarasib that contributes to its potency and rapid kinetics. Divarasib has greater potency and kinetics of alkylation compared with other KRAS G12C inhibitors in vitro and shows robust tumor growth inhibition in multiple KRAS G12C-positive cell lines.
The classical complement pathway is a critical therapeutic target for numerous diseases, but the lack of robust, translatable biomarkers hinders drug development. Here, we report the development and qualification of a quantitative liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) platform to measure key classical pathway proteins-C1q, C 1s (total and active), and the native C1q/C 1s complex. The platform was established across human, cynomolgus monkey, and mouse samples, including serum, plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, and brain homogenates. We employed two complementary workflows: an affinity capture LC-MS/MS method to quantify the intact C1q/C 1s complex and a direct digestion strategy to differentiate total C 1s from its active form. The assays met rigorous qualification standards for accuracy, reproducibility (CV <= 15%) and freeze-thaw stability. Applying this platform, we established that cynomolgus monkeys exhibit complement profiles highly similar to those in healthy humans, validating their use as a translational model. In contrast, mice display markedly higher baseline levels of active C 1s, revealing a critical species-specific difference in complement regulation. This qualified, cross-species platform provides an essential tool for bridging preclinical and clinical research and enabling reliable pharmacodynamic assessment of complement-targeting therapeutics.
Mutant KRAS is highly prevalent in human cancer and has been actively pursued as a target for drug discovery. Much progress has been made in drugging KRAS G12C, owing to the ability of inhibitors to covalently target its oncogenic cysteine mutation at codon 12. A number of KRAS G12C inhibitors have advanced to clinical development and are being investigated for the treatment of a variety of solid tumors. Notably, many patients with KRAS G12C-positive non-small cell lung cancer develop brain metastases. Herein, we report the discovery and development of a brain-penetrant inhibitor of KRAS G12C using divarasib as a starting point. Optimization efforts focused on reducing molecular weight and topological polar surface area as well as shielding of hydrogen bond donors. In this manner, active transport by both P-gp and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) was attenuated, and high exposure in rodent brain tissue was achieved.
Mass spectrometry (MS) has emerged as a powerful tool for characterizing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), enabling the determination of the drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) and the monitoring of ADC degradation. Here we present a native direct mass technology (DMT) approach, an Orbitrap-based charge detection MS integrated with the SampleStream platform and Newomics' MnESI source, providing automated, highly sensitive analysis of DAR and stability for two interchain-modified high DAR ADCs (DAR 14) in native conditions. We applied this platform to samples from formulation buffer, as well as from ex vivo and in vivo conditions, where ADC concentrations were substantially lower. Owing to the pronounced heterogeneity of these DAR-14 ADCs, direct DAR characterization was only achievable using native DMT, underscoring the limitations of conventional native MS in studying heterogeneous ADCs. Furthermore, the interchain stability assessments from biomatrices demonstrate that native DMT delivers a robust, high-resolution method for characterizing interchain-modified high DAR ADCs across diverse biological environments.
Protein therapeutic complexes, such as interchain cysteine-conjugated antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and siRNA-based antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (siRNA AOCs) that form non-covalent antibody subunit assemblies, are increasingly prevalent. Biotransformation assessments of protein therapeutics in complex biomatrices are often conducted using affinity capture coupled with reversed phase liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry under denaturing conditions (AC-MS, for clear distinction refer to as AC-denaturing MS), which allows direct measurement of clipping sites and relative quantification. However, AC-denaturing MS is unsuitable for analyzing the biotransformation of non-covalent protein therapeutics as stability information is lost for the non-covalent component. This manuscript presents a novel biotransformation analysis method that preserves non-covalent interactions by combining affinity capture with neutral pH competitive elution and native size exclusion chromatography–mass spectrometry, named as native affinity capture-mass spectrometry (native AC-MS). The successful recovery of non-covalent complexes, including a cysteine-conjugated ADC mimic molecule and siRNA AOCs in various biomatrices, demonstrates the capability of native AC-MS to maintain non-covalent interactions during characterization. Optimized competitive elution exhibits comparable recovery to standard denaturing elution. Native AC-MS offers sufficient sensitivity (low µg/mL limit of detection for antibody) for in vivo studies, as demonstrated by an in vivo plasma siRNA AOC analysis example. To our knowledge, this is one of the first report of in vivo biotransformation analysis of siRNA AOCs. The method provides valuable information, including relative abundance and metabolite identification and can be widely adapted for biotransformation of non-covalent modalities.
Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) plays a pivotal role in protein denaturation, tissue extraction, and protein mass-based electrophoretic separations. However, even modest concentrations of SDS can cause column overpressure, retention time shifts, and ionization signal suppression during liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analyses. Thus, SDS removal is a critical step for LC-MS/MS analysis of protein digests containing SDS. This study describes an inexpensive and high-throughput method to remove SDS from protein digests using weak-anion exchange (WAX) resins in 96-well filter plates. Requiring less than 3 min, this method can reduce SDS concentrations from 0.1-0.4% to less than 5 ppm and from 0.6-1% to less than 100 ppm. After SDS removal, the recoveries of unmodified tryptic peptides and phosphorylated peptides (at 94.3 nM) were ∼90% and ∼70%, respectively. Additionally, when using aqueous 1% SDS to solubilize trastuzumab-spiked mouse serum and subsequently removing the SDS using the WAX resin, quantitation of trastuzumab exhibited excellent linearity (R2 = 0.9996) together with a low coefficient of variation (<10%). Calculated concentrations were within 20% of the expected value for spiked standard samples (0.5, 1, and 2 μg/mL trastuzumab in mouse serum). The method is about 20× more cost-effective versus commercialized SDS removal kits and both the resin and filter plate are readily available, so the method should easily transfer to other laboratories.
The complement classical pathway (CP) is a key mediator of synapse loss and neurodegeneration in mouse models of Alzheimer′s (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases. We analyzed human brain proteomics and found consistent elevations of all CP proteins, but not other complement pathways, in AD patient brains. We performed human genetics analysis that identified a rare variant in the C1S gene within the Finnish population that is associated with AD and we found that a common AD-associated C1S variant correlates with increased C1S protein levels. A targeted assay detected elevated C1S activation in AD patient CSF. Given this specific implication of the CP in AD, we next evaluated the therapeutic approach of targeting the CP in the brain using antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). To identify promising CP targets for knockdown using ASOs we first tested for rescue of synapse loss in an AD mouse model using heterozygous and homozygous complement knockout mice and examined the relative brain expression levels of different CP genes. Based on these experiments we prioritized C1r, C1s and C4 as promising targets for therapeutic knockdown using ASOs. We then screened for ASOs for each target, evaluating in vitro and in vivo knockdown and toxicity, and identified optimal ASOs targeting C1r, C1s and C4. Experiments with AD model mice demonstrated significant rescue of synapse loss following treatment with C1r, C1s or C4 ASOs. Overall, our findings provide proof of concept for using nucleic acid-based medicine to target the CP in AD and demonstrate the translational potential of this approach. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Intact protein mass spectrometry (MS) coupled with liquid chromatography was applied to characterize the pharmacokinetics and stability profiles of therapeutic proteins. However, limitations from chromatography, including throughput and carryover, result in challenges with handling large sample numbers. Here, we combined intact protein MS with multiple front-end separations, including affinity capture, SampleStream, and high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS), to perform high-throughput and specific mass measurements of a multivalent antibody with one antigen-binding fragment (Fab) fused to an immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) antibody. Generic affinity capture ensures the retention of both intact species 1Fab-IgG1 and the tentative degradation product IgG1. Subsequently, the analytes were directly loaded into SampleStream, where each injection occurs within ∼30 s. By separating ions prior to MS detection, FAIMS further offered improvement in signal-overnoise by ∼30% for denatured protein MS via employing compensation voltages that were optimized for different antibody species. When enhanced FAIMS transmission of 1Fab-IgG1 was employed, a qualified assay was established for spiked-in serum samples between 0.1 and 25 μg/mL, resulting in ∼10% accuracy bias and precision coefficient of variation. Selective FAIMS transmission of IgG1 as the degradation surrogate product enabled more sensitive detection of clipped species for intact 1Fab-IgG1 at 5 μg/mL in serum, generating an assay to measure 1Fab-IgG1 truncation between 2.5 and 50% with accuracy and precision below 20% bias and coefficient of variation. Our results revealed that the SampleStream-FAIMS-MS platform affords high throughput, selectivity, and sensitivity for characterizing therapeutic antibodies from complex biomatrices qualitatively and quantitatively.
ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEEditorialNEXTIntroducing the High-Throughput in Mass Spectrometry Special Focus IssueJohn C. TranJohn C. TranMore by John C. Tran, Iain D. G. CampuzanoIain D. G. CampuzanoMore by Iain D. G. Campuzanohttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4310-8540, Erin S. BakerErin S. BakerMore by Erin S. Bakerhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5246-2213, and Vicki H. WysockiVicki H. WysockiMore by Vicki H. Wysockihttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0495-2538Cite this: J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 2023, 34, 8, 1543–1544Publication Date (Web):August 2, 2023Publication History Received13 July 2023Published online2 August 2023Published inissue 2 August 2023https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jasms.3c00253https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.3c00253editorialACS PublicationsAmerican Chemical Society. Published 2023 by American Chemical Society. This publication is available under these Terms of Use. Request reuse permissions This publication is free to access through this site. Learn MoreArticle Views1906Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail PDF (983 KB) Get e-AlertscloseSUBJECTS:Ionization,Lipidomics,Mass spectrometry,Proteomics,Software Get e-Alerts
Biotransformation leading to single residue modifications (e.g., deamidation, oxidation) can contribute to decreased efficacy/potency, poor pharmacokinetics, and/or toxicity/immunogenicity for protein therapeutics. Identifying and characterizing such liabilities in vivo are emerging needs for biologics drug discovery. In vitro stress assays involving PBS for deamidation or AAPH for oxidation are commonly used for predicting liabilities in manufacturing and storage and are sometimes considered a predictive tool for in vivo liabilities. However, reports discussing their in vivo translatability are limited. Herein, we introduce a mass spectrometry workflow that characterizes in vivo oxidation and deamidation in pharmacokinetically relevant compartments for diverse protein therapeutic modalities. The workflow has low bias of <10% in quantitating degradation in the relevant pharmacokinetic concentration range for monkey and rabbit serum/plasma (1-100 mu g/mL) and allows for high sequence coverage (similar to 85%) for discovery/monitoring of amino acid modifications. For oxidation and deamidation, the assay was precise, with percent coefficient of variation of <8% at 1-100 mu g/mL and <= 6% method-induced artifacts. A high degree of in vitro and in vivo correlation was observed for deamidation on the six diverse protein therapeutics (seven liability sites) tested. In vivo translatability for oxidation liabilities were not observed for the 11 molecules tested using in vitro AAPH stress. One of the molecules dosed in eyes resulted in a false positive and a false negative prediction for in vivo oxidation following AAPH stress. Finally, peroxide stress was also tested but resulted in limited success (1 out of 4 molecules) in predicting oxidation liabilities.
The growing opportunities recognized for covalent drug inhibitors, like KRAS G12C inhibitors, are driving the need for mass spectrometry methods that can quickly and robustly measure therapeutic drug activity in vivo for drug discovery research and development. Effective front-end sample preparation is critical for proteins extracted from tumors but is generally labor intensive and impractical for large sample numbers typical in pharmacodynamic (PD) studies. Herein, we describe an automated and integrated sample preparation method for the measurement of activity levels of KRAS G12C drug inhibitor alkylation from complex tumor samples involving high throughput detergent removal and preconcentration followed by quantitation using mass spectrometry. We introduce a robust assay with an average intra-assay coefficient of variation (CV) of 4% and an interassay CV of 6% obtained from seven studies, enabling us to understand the relationship between KRAS G12C target occupancy and the therapeutic PD effect from mouse tumor samples. Further, the data demonstrated that the drug candidate GDC-6036, a KRAS G12C covalent inhibitor, shows dose-dependent target inhibition (KRAS G12C alkylation) and MAPK pathway inhibition, which correlate with high antitumor potency in the MIA PaCa-2 pancreatic xenograft model.
Protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 mediates RAS-driven MAPK signaling and has emerged in recent years as a target of interest in oncology, both for treating with a single agent and in combination with a KRAS inhibitor. We were drawn to the pharmacological potential of SHP2 inhibition, especially following the initial observation that drug-like compounds could bind an allosteric site and enforce a closed, inactive state of the enzyme. Here, we describe the identification and characterization of GDC-1971 (formerly RLY-1971), a SHP2 inhibitor currently in clinical trials in combination with KRAS G12C inhibitor divarasib (GDC-6036) for the treatment of solid tumors driven by a KRAS G12C mutation.
Proteases are critical proteins involved in cleaving substrates that may impact biological pathways, cellular processes, or disease progression. In the biopharmaceutical industry, modulating the levels of protease activity is an important strategy for mitigating many types of diseases. While a variety of analytical tools exist for characterizing substrate cleavages, in vitro functional screening for antibody inhibitors of protease activity using physiologically relevant intact protein substrates remains challenging. In addition, detecting such large protein substrates with high heterogeneity using high-throughput mass spectrometry screening has rarely been reported in the literature with concerns for assay robustness and sensitivity. In this study, we established a peptide-based in vitro functional screening assay for antibody inhibitors of mouse bone morphogenic protein 1 (mBMP1) metalloprotease using a heterogeneous recombinant 66-kDa mouse Procollagen I alpha 1 chain (mProcollagen) substrate. We compared several analytical tools including capillary gel electrophoresis Western blot (CE-Western blot), as well as both intact protein and peptide-based mass spectrometry (MS) to quantitate the mBMP1 proteolytic activity and its inhibition by antibodies using this heterogeneous mProcollagen substrate. We concluded that the peptide-based mass spectrometry screening assay was the most suitable approach in terms of throughput, sensitivity, and assay robustness. We then optimized our mBMP1 proteolysis reaction after characterizing the enzyme kinetics using the peptide-based MS assay. This assay resulted in Z' values ranging from 0.6 to 0.8 from the screening campaign. Among over 1200 antibodies screened, IC50 characterization was performed on the top candidate hits, which showed partial or complete inhibitory activities against mBMP1.
KRAS is one of the most frequently mutated oncogenes, with KRAS G12C recently becoming an actionable target for small molecule intervention. GDC-6036 is an investigational KRAS G12C inhibitor that acts by irreversibly binding to the switch II pocket of KRAS G12C when in the inactive GDP-bound state, thereby blocking GTP binding and activation. Assessing target engagement is an essential component of clinical drug development, helping to demonstrate mechanistic activity, guide dose selection, understand pharmacodynamics as it relates to clinical response, and explore resistance. Here, we report the development of an ultra-sensitive approach for assessing KRAS G12C engagement. Immunoaffinity enrichment with a commercially available anti-RAS antibody was combined with a targeted 2D-LC-MS/MS technique to quantify both free and GDC-6036-bound KRAS G12C proteins. A KRAS G12C-positive non-small cell lung cancer xenograft model was dosed with GDC-6036 to assess the feasibility of this assay for analyzing small core needle biopsies. As predicted, dose-dependent KRAS G12C engagement was observed. To date, a sensitivity of 0.08 fmol/μg of total protein has been achieved for both free and GDC-6036-bound KRAS G12C with as little as 4 μg of total protein extracted from human tumor samples. This sub-fmol/μg level of sensitivity provides a powerful potential approach to assess covalent inhibitor target engagement at the site of action using core needle tumor biopsies from clinical studies.
Unlike with new chemical entities, the biotransformation of therapeutic proteins (TPs) has not been routinely investigated or included in regulatory filings. Nevertheless, there is an expanding pool of evidence suggesting that a more in-depth understanding of biotransformation could better aid the discovery and development of increasingly diverse modalities. For instance, such biotransformation analysis of TPs affords important information on molecular stability, which in turn may shed light on any potential impact on binding affinity, potency, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, or bioanalysis. This perspective summarizes the current practices in studying biotransformation of TPs and related findings in the biopharmaceutical industry. Various TP case studies are discussed, and a fit-for-purpose approach is recommended when investigating their biotransformation. In addition, we provide a decision tree to guide the biotransformation characterization for selected modalities. By raising the awareness of this important topic, which remains relatively underexplored in the development of TPs (Bolleddula et al., 2022), we hope that current and developing practices can pave the way for establishing a consensus on the biotransformation assessment of TPs. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This article provides a comprehensive perspective of the current practices for exploring the biotransformation of therapeutic proteins across the drug development industry. We, the participants of the Innovation and Quality therapeutic protein absorption distribution metabolism excretion working group, recommend and summarize appropriate approaches for conducting biotransformation studies to support internal decision making based on the data generated in discovery and development.
Purpose:Diabetic macular edema (DME) is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness among working-age adults. Although current intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapies improve vision for many patients with DME, approximately half do not achieve the visual acuity required to drive. We therefore sought additional approaches to resolve edema and improve vision for these patients.Methods:We explored direct agonists of Tie2, a receptor known to stabilize vasculature and prevent leakage. We identified a multivalent PEG-Fab conjugate, Tie2.1-hexamer, that oligomerizes Tie2 and drives receptor activation and characterized its activities in vitro and in vivo.Results:Tie2.1-hexamer normalized and stabilized intercellular junctions of stressed endothelial cell monolayers in vitro, suppressed vascular leak in mice under conditions where anti-VEGF alone was ineffective, and demonstrated extended ocular exposure and robust pharmacodynamic responses in non-human primates.Conclusions:Tie2.1-hexamer directly activates the Tie2 pathway, reduces vascular leak, and is persistent within the vitreal humor.Translational Relevance:Our study presents a promising potential therapeutic for the treatment of DME.
For antibody-drug conjugates to be efficacious and safe, they must be stable in circulation to carry the payload to the site of the targeted cell. Several components of a drug-conjugated antibody are known to influence stability: 1) the site of drug attachment on the antibody, 2) the linker used to attach the payload to the antibody, and 3) the payload itself. In order to support the design and optimization of a high volume of drug conjugates and avoid unstable conjugates prior to testing in animal models, we wanted to proactively identify these potential liabilities. Therefore, we sought to establish an in vitro screening method that best correlated with in vivo stability. While traditionally plasma has been used to assess in vitro stability, our evaluation using a variety of THIOMABTM antibody-drug conjugates revealed several disconnects between the stability assessed in vitro and the in vivo outcomes when using plasma. When drug conjugates were incubated in vitro for 24 h in mouse whole blood rather than plasma and then analyzed by affinity capture LC-MS, we found an improved correlation to in vivo stability with whole blood (R2 = 0.87, coefficient of determination) compared to unfrozen or frozen mouse plasma (R2 = 0.34, 0.01, respectively). We further showed that this whole blood assay was also able to predict in vivo stability of other preclinical species such as rat and cynomolgus monkey, as well as in human. The screening method utilized short (24 h) incubation times, as well as a custom analysis software, allowing increased throughput and in-depth biotransformation characterization. While some instabilities that were more challenging to identify remain, the method greatly enhanced the process of screening, optimizing, and lead candidate selection, resulting in the substantial reduction of animal studies.
There are many pharmacokinetic challenges associated with administering protein therapeutics, including biotransformation via clipping, deamidation, isomerization, oxidation, etc. In the case of engineered multivalent tethered antibody formats, proteolysis or deconjugation at the fusion or conjugation site present further issues. Unlike degradations associated with antibody drug conjugates, such biotransformations of tethered antibody formats usually result in degraded products with large mass differences. These large differences can result in processing or mass spectrometry response bias among the resulting product species that can lead to inaccurate stability quantitation. Herein, we describe an assay strategy for characterizing and quantitating degradations accurately for multivalent antibodies by incorporating response bias corrections. For the multivalent tethered antibody molecules selected, an similar to 30-80% difference in response, compared to the cleaved product, was observed. To correct for the response bias, selected tethered multivalent antibodies and an IgG antibody (representing the stable intact and the degraded product species, respectively) were spiked in serum at known ratios for analysis. Following affinity capture, we generated calibration curves (five-parameter logistic fit p < 0.05) by plotting the measured ratios of the MS ion responses against the known spiked-in ratios (CVs < 8% for calibration standards). The qualified calibration curve (accuracy within 8% and 2% for measuring degradations of 5% and 15% product, respectively) was then used, through interpolation, to determine stability profiles for the same multivalent tethered antibody formats from both in vitro serum and pharmacokinetic study samples.