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Review
. 2023 Dec;30(1):2183816.
doi: 10.1080/10717544.2023.2183816.

Quantitative analysis of therapeutic proteins in biological fluids: recent advancement in analytical techniques

Affiliations
Review

Quantitative analysis of therapeutic proteins in biological fluids: recent advancement in analytical techniques

Jae Geun Song et al. Drug Deliv. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Pharmaceutical application of therapeutic proteins has been continuously expanded for the treatment of various diseases. Efficient and reliable bioanalytical methods are essential to expedite the identification and successful clinical development of therapeutic proteins. In particular, selective quantitative assays in a high-throughput format are critical for the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic evaluation of protein drugs and to meet the regulatory requirements for new drug approval. However, the inherent complexity of proteins and many interfering substances presented in biological matrices have a great impact on the specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, and robustness of analytical assays, thereby hindering the quantification of proteins. To overcome these issues, various protein assays and sample preparation methods are currently available in a medium- or high-throughput format. While there is no standard or universal approach suitable for all circumstances, a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay often becomes a method of choice for the identification and quantitative analysis of therapeutic proteins in complex biological samples, owing to its high sensitivity, specificity, and throughput. Accordingly, its application as an essential analytical tool is continuously expanded in pharmaceutical R&D processes. Proper sample preparation is also important since clean samples can minimize the interference from co-existing substances and improve the specificity and sensitivity of LC-MS/MS assays. A combination of different methods can be utilized to improve bioanalytical performance and ensure more accurate quantification. This review provides an overview of various protein assays and sample preparation methods, with particular emphasis on quantitative protein analysis by LC-MS/MS.

Keywords: ELISA; LC-MS/MS; Protein drugs; chromatographic separation; protein assays; quantitation.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Sample preparation methods prior to the quantification of protein drugs in plasma using LC-MS/MS.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Workflow and critical factors in LC-MS/MS analysis of protein samples.

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MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants funded by the Korean Government (MSIT) (No. 2019R1A2C2004873 and No. 2018R1A5A2023127) and by the BK21 FOUR program through NRF of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE, Korea).

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