Simple Analysis of Impurities in Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Using a Single Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer

User Benefits

- Oligonucleotides and related impurities can be easily analyzed using a Nexera XS inert UHPLC system and a LCMS-2050 single quadrupole mass spectrometer. - The molecular weight of impurities can be estimated with high precision by deconvoluting the resulting mass spectra.

Introduction

Oligonucleotide therapeutics have attracted attention in recent years as a new modality for drug discovery, because they can be used to create disease-specific therapeutic agents and can be designed easily by chemical synthesis. Typically, they are composed of oligonucleotides with about a dozen to several dozen bases (including modified bases). However, the development of analytical methods for quality assurance and standardization is still in progress. Quality control requires analyzing impurities, such as by-products, unreacted residues, and degradation products, in addition to the principal components. HPLC-UV is commonly used for purity confirmation, but if impurities are detected, they must be checked to confirm whether they are known impurities or not. Mass spectrometry, which provides molecular weight information, is a valuable analytical tool in such cases. This article describes an analysis of oligonucleotides and related impurities using an inert UHPLC system and a single quadrupole mass spectrometer.

November 14, 2023 GMT