Investigation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates by Mass Spectrometry

ADCs are empowered monoclonal antibodies that are designed to harness their targeting ability by linking them to cell-killing agents. They are made up of three main components, the antibody, linker and the cytotoxic drug. The specificity of the antibody with the antigen on the tumor cell surface helps with its internalization into the cell after which the active drug is released causing cell death. The investigation of ADCs can be done using a variety of MS methods. Here, we talk about the bottom-up approach, the top-down approaches such as ECD and ETD, the ESI/MS method and IM-MS. Further, we also focus on the applications of MALDI/MS such as UV-MALDI, IR-MALDI and IMS-MALDI and provide examples of the mass spectra that provide tremendous amount of information on ADC structures.