An Open-Source Framework for Mass Calculation of Antibody-Based Therapeutic Molecules

Biotherapeutic masses are a means of verifying identity and structural integrity. Mass spectrometry (MS) of intact proteins or protein subunits provides an easy analytical tool for different stages of biopharmaceutical development. The protein's identity is confirmed when the experimental mass from MS is within a pre-defined mass error range of the theoretical mass. While several computational tools exist for the calculation of protein and peptide molecular weights, they either were not designed for direct application to biotherapeutic entities, have access limitations due to paid licenses, or require uploading protein sequences to host servers.

We have developed a modular mass calculation routine that enables the easy determination of the average or monoisotopic masses and elemental compositions of therapeutic glycoproteins, including monoclonal antibodies (mAb), bispecific antibodies (bsAb), and antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). The modular nature of this Python-based calculation framework will allow the extension of this platform to other modalities such as vaccines, fusion proteins, and oligonucleotides in the future, and this framework could also be useful for the interrogation of top-down mass spectrometry data. By creating an open-source standalone desktop application with a graphical user interface (GUI), we hope to overcome the restrictions around use in environments where proprietary information cannot be uploaded to web-based tools. This article describes the algorithms and application of this tool, mAbScale, to different antibody-based therapeutic modalities.