Simple measurement the chelator number of antibody conjugates by MALDI-TOF MS

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry(MALDI-TOF MS) is one of the powerful methods that enable analysis of small molecules as well as large molecules up to about 500,000 Da without severe fragmentation. MALDI-TOF MS, thus, has been a very useful an analytical tool for the confirmation of synthetic molecules, probing PTMs, and identifying structures of a given protein. In recent nuclear medicine, MALDI-TOF MS liner ion mode helps researcher calculate the average number of chelator(or linkage) per an antibody conjugate, such as DOTA-(or DFO-) trastuzumab for labeling a medical radioisotope. This simple technique can be utilized to improve the labeling method and control the quality at the development of antibody-based radiopharmaceuticals, which is very effected to diagnosis and therapy for in vivo tumor cells, with radioisotopes like $^{89}Zr$, $^{64}Cu$, and 177Lu. To minimize the error, MALDI-TOF MS measurement is repeatedly performed for each sample in this study, and external calibration is carried out after data collection.