Cross-Interaction Chromatography-Based QSAR Model for Early-Stage Screening to Facilitate Enhanced Developability of Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) constitute a rapidly growing biopharmaceutical sector. However, their growth is impeded by developability issues such as polyspecificity and lack of solubility, which leads to attrition as well as manufacturing failures. In this study a multitool hybrid quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model development framework is described. This framework uses four novel datasets derived from the primary sequences of IgG1-kappa-humanized mAbs with varying degrees of resolutions. Unsupervised pattern recognition is first performed on the descriptor sets to visualize any intrinsic property-based clustering, followed by regression of descriptors against cross-interaction chromatography (CIC) retention times. Model optimization is performed via unsupervised variable reduction followed by supervised variable selection. Finally, the models and datasets are benchmarked based on the regression model performance metrics such as R-2, Q(2), and RMSE.The results show that datasets containing localized descriptors rather than averaged value over the entire protein have better predictive performance of CIC retention behavior with R-2 > 0.8 and RMSE < 0.3. Furthermore, the results indicate the physicochemical, electronic, and topological properties of hypervariable regions of antibodies that contribute most to the CIC retention times. The results of these studies could contribute to early-stage screening and better design of mAbs.