Monoclonal antibodies are becoming more widespread as treatments for a variety of diseases including osteoporosis and various cancers. Furthermore, monoclonal antibodies have received emergency authorization for use as treatment for SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, from the FDA under the drug names casirivimab and imdevimab. Aggregation of antibodies may take place due to unwanted folding of the protein structure and can be influenced by a wide variety of factors including pH, presence of other free bases and, most importantly for this application, temperature.
Aggregation index provides a semi-quantitative view of the extent of aggregation in antibodies and can be determined by simply measuring the UV/Visible spectrum of the material. UV/Visible spectroscopy provides a fast method for estimation of the extent to which antibodies have become aggregated. This application brief describes how the PerkinElmer LAMBDA 465 with UVLab™ software allows users to measure samples in less than one minute.