Methods for addressing host cell protein impurities in biopharmaceutical product development

Reducing Immunogenicity by Design: Approaches to Minimize Immunogenicity of Monoclonal Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have transformed therapeutic strategies for various diseases. Their high specificity to target antigens makes them ideal therapeutic agents for certain diseases. However, a challenge to their application in clinical practice is their potential risk to induce unwanted immune response, termed immunogenicity. This challenge drives the continued efforts to deimmunize these protein therapeutics while maintaining their pharmacokinetic properties and therapeutic efficacy. Because mAbs hold a central position in therapeutic strategies against an array of diseases, the importance of conducting comprehensive immunogenicity risk assessment during the drug development process cannot be overstated. Such assessment necessitates the employment of in silico, in vitro, and in vivo strategies to evaluate the immunogenicity risk of mAbs. Understanding the intricacies of the mechanisms that drive mAb immunogenicity is crucial to improving their therapeutic efficacy and safety and developing the most effective strategies to determine and mitigate their immunogenic risk. This review highlights recent advances in immunogenicity prediction strategies, with a focus on protein engineering strategies used throughout development to reduce immunogenicity.

Effect of Host Cell Protein on Chinese Hamster Ovary Recombinant Protein Production and its Removal Strategies: A Mini Review

Chinese hamster ovary cells are the main expression system for recombinant therapeutic proteins. During the production of these proteins, certain host cell proteins are secreted, broken down, and released by host cells in the culture along with the proteins of interest. These host cell proteins are often difficult to remove during the downstream purification process, and thus affect the quality, safety, and effectiveness of recombinant protein biopharmaceutical products and increase the production cost of recombinant therapeutic proteins. Therefore, host cell protein production must be reduced as much as possible during the production process and eliminated during purification. This article reviews the harm caused by host cell proteins in the production of recombinant protein drugs using Chinese hamster ovary cell, factors affecting host cell proteins, the monitoring and identification of these proteins, and methods to reduce their type and quantity in the final product.

High-performance countercurrent membrane purification for host cell protein removal from monoclonal antibody products

The transition to continuous biomanufacturing has led to renewed interest in alternative approaches for downstream processing of monoclonal antibody (mAb) products. In this study, we examined the potential of using high-performance countercurrent membrane purification (HPCMP) for the removal of host cell proteins (HCPs) derived from Chinese Hamster Ovary cells in the purification of a mAb. Initial studies used several model proteins to identify appropriate operating conditions for the hollow fiber membrane modules. HPCMP was then used for mAb purification, with mAb yield >95% and more than 100-fold reduction in HCP. Stable operation was maintained for 48 h for feeds that were first prefiltered through the 3MTM Harvest RC chromatographic clarifier to remove DNA and other foulants. In addition, the Process Mass Intensity for HPCMP can be much less than that for alternative HCP separation processes. These results highlight the potential of using HPCMP as part of a fully continuous mAb production process.

Application of Formulation Principles to Stability Issues Encountered During Processing, Manufacturing, and Storage of Drug Substance and Drug Product Protein Therapeutics

The field of formulation and stabilization of protein therapeutics has become rather extensive. However, most of the focus has been on stabilization of the final drug product. Yet, proteins experience stress and degradation through the manufacturing process, starting with fermentaition. This review describes how formulation principles can be applied to stabilize biopharmaceutical proteins during bioprocessing and manufacturing, considering each unit operation involved in prepration of the drug substance. In addition, the impact of the container on stabilty is discussed as well.

From cell factories to patients: Stability challenges in biopharmaceuticals manufacturing and administration with mitigation strategies

Active ingredients of biopharmaceuticals consist of a wide array of biomolecular structures, including those of enzymes, monoclonal antibodies, nucleic acids, and recombinant proteins. Recently, these molecules have dominated the pharmaceutical industry owing to their safety and efficacy. However, their manufacturing is hindered by high cost, inadequate batch-to-batch equivalence, inherent instability, and other quality issues. This article is an up-to-date review of the challenges encountered during different stages of biopharmaceutical production and mitigation of problems arising during their development, formulation, manufacturing, and administration. It is a broad overview discussion of stability issues encountered during product life cycle i.e., upstream processing (aggregation, solubility, host cell proteins, color change), downstream bioprocessing (aggregation, fragmentation), formulation, manufacturing, and delivery to patients.

Towards advanced bioprocess optimization: A multiscale modelling approach

Mammalian cells produce up to 80 % of the commercially available therapeutic proteins, with Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells being the primary production host. Manufacturing involves a train of reactors, the last of which is typically run in fed-batch mode, where cells grow and produce the required protein. The feeding strategy is decided a priori, from either past operations or the design of experiments and rarely considers the current state of the process. This work proposes a Model Predictive Control (MPC) formulation based on a hybrid kinetic-stoichiometric reactor model to provide optimal feeding policies in real-time, which is agnostic to the culture, hence transferable across CHO cell culture systems. The benefits of the proposed controller formulation are demonstrated through a comparison between an open-loop simulation and closed-loop optimization, using a digital twin as an emulator of the process.