Monoclonal antibodies are the cornerstone biopharmaceuticals whose safety and efficacy critically depend on their higher-order structure (HOS). Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has emerged as a promising tool for HOS evaluation, yet its application has largely relied on fingerprinting approaches without residue-level interpretation. Here, we report site-specific assignments of methyl resonances in the Fc region of human IgG1, established through amino acid-selective labeling and correlation with backbone resonances using scalar coupling and NOE connectivities, further supported by mutagenesis. These assignments allowed us to identify glycoform-dependent spectral variations, including distinct signatures of core fucosylation and terminal galactosylation, as well as an Fc-specific amino acid substitution. Importantly, these spectral probes were detectable even in antibodies at natural isotopic abundance, enabling practical applications to therapeutic products without isotopic labeling. Furthermore, dynamic filtering highlighted methyl resonances from hinge and receptor-binding residues with elevated mobility, providing localized insights into functional sites. Collectively, our results establish unlabeled methyl NMR as a robust platform for sensitive and practical HOS assessment of therapeutic antibodies. This approach is broadly applicable to monitor glycosylation heterogeneity, chemical modifications, and batch-to-batch consistency, thereby offering a valuable framework for development and quality control of both innovative biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars.
Yanaka et al. (Wed,) studied this question.