[Determination of drug antibody ratio in an antibody-drug conjugate].

This paper reports the determination of the drug antibody ratio in an antibody-drug conjugate with two methods, i.e. LC-MS and UV/VIS, and to provide a reliable method to scientifically evaluate and effectively control the drug antibody ratio. Deglycosylated sample was analyzed with C4 column followed by MS, and the number of conjugated drugs in the antibody was determined by the molecular weight increase due to the addition of different number of drugs to the antibody, and then drug antibody ratio was calculated by weighted average of different number of drugs conjugated to the antibody. Optical density at 252 and 280 nm was measured with UV/VIS, and due to the difference of extinction coefficients between the antibody and the drug, the drug antibody ratio was calculated from linear equation with two unknowns. The drug antibody ratio was 3.21 and 3.25 respectively measured by the two methods, and the results were similar with the two methods. Our study indicated that both methods, LC-MS and UV/VIS, could be applied to the analysis of drug antibody ratio of the antibody drug conjugate.