Validation of Rapi-Fluor method for glycan profiling and application to commercial antibody drugs

N-glycans influence the activity of antibody drugs such as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). Thus, glycan profiling is considered a critical quality attribute (CQA) and requires routine and comprehensive monitoring. In this report, we validate the new glycan profiling method called Rapi-Fluor method, which reduced the sample preparation time and increased the FLR and MS intensities compared with conventional 2-AB method. Optimized glycan release, labeling, hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) enrichment, and HILIC separation resulted in low variation and short preparation time. The method evaluated for human IgG standard varied from 100 µg/mL to 4000 µg/mL in 25 µL of water. The determination of coefficient (r² > 0.9992), recovery (88.992% ~ 111.198%), limit of detection (LOD < 193.274 µg/mL), limit of quantification (LOQ < 585.679 µg/mL), and precision (Intra-day < 2.317%RSD and Inter-day < 4.287%RSD) were evaluated with four major glycans from antibody drugs. In addition, the method was used for glycan profiling of five different commercial antibodies. The method yielded precise results for IgG glycan analysis and demonstrated effective glycan profiling of commercial antibody drugs.