Challenges and Insights in Absolute Quantification of Recombinant Therapeutic Antibodies by Mass Spectrometry: An Introductory Review

This review describes mass spectrometry (MS)-based approaches for the absolute quantification of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), focusing on technical challenges in sample treatment and calibration. Therapeutic mAbs are crucial for treating cancer and inflammatory, infectious, and autoimmune diseases. We trace their development from hybridoma technology and the first murine mAbs in 1975 to today’s chimeric and fully human mAbs. With increasing commercial relevance, the absolute quantification of mAbs, traceable to an international standard system of units (SI units), has attracted attention from science, industry, and national metrology institutes (NMIs). Quantification of proteotypic peptides after enzymatic digestion using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) has emerged as the most viable strategy, though methods targeting intact mAbs are still being explored. We review peptide-based quantification, focusing on critical experimental steps like denaturation, reduction, alkylation, choice of digestion enzyme, and selection of signature peptides. Challenges in amino acid analysis (AAA) for quantifying pure mAbs and peptide calibrators, along with software tools for targeted MS data analysis, are also discussed. Short explanations within each chapter provide newcomers with an overview of the field’s challenges. We conclude that, despite recent progress, further efforts are needed to overcome the many technical hurdles along the quantification workflow and discuss the prospects of developing standardized protocols and certified reference materials (CRMs) for this goal. We also suggest future applications of newer technologies for absolute mAb quantification.