Mechanistic insight into the oxidative degradation of monoclonal antibodies: relevance to developability and the design of stable pharmaceutical formulations

Abstract Oxidation represents a key pathway for the chemical degradation of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), and chemical liabilities such as amino acid residue oxidation are an integral part of developability studies. Mechanistically, oxidation reactions in formulations of therapeutic mAbs are frequently not well understood, as critical information such as the nature of the oxidant(s) is frequently lacking. This brief review summarizes recent screening and developability studies of therapeutic proteins specifically focusing on oxidative liabilities and discusses these data in view of mechanistic and complementary analytical information on the oxidation of amino acid residues in specific protein sequences.