NIST, IBBR Researchers Explore Excipient-Influenced mAb Dynamics at Atomic Resolution

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are now widely used as a platform for the development of therapeutic drugs, due to their many advantages. mAb drugs are protein molecules that fold into three dimensional structures which give these molecules their distinct conformations or shapes. The totality of the elements that contribute to the conformation of a mAb is termed the higher order structure (HOS). HOS plays a direct role in the clinical function of mAb drugs, and deviations from proper HOS can lead to ineffectiveness or even adverse clinical outcomes. NIST, IBBR researchers have developed NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) methods to see the HOS of mAbs at atomic level resolution and most recently are using the method to probe mAb-excipient interactions and HOS dynamics in unprecedent detail. Their work, summarized in the story published in Bioprocess Online, provides new insight into the specific relationships between the dynamic properties of the HOS of mAbs and the drug formulation that provides researchers with a new tool to help accelerate the development of safe and effective mAb drugs.