Continuous annular chromatography: General characterization and application for the isolation of recombinant protein drugs

Continuous Manufacturing of Recombinant Therapeutic Proteins: Upstream and Downstream Technologies

Continuous biomanufacturing of recombinant therapeutic proteins offers several potential advantages over conventional batch processing, including reduced cost of goods, more flexible and responsive manufacturing facilities, and improved and consistent product quality. Although continuous approaches to various upstream and downstream unit operations have been considered and studied for decades, in recent years interest and application have accelerated. Researchers have achieved increasingly higher levels of process intensification, and have also begun to integrate different continuous unit operations into larger, holistically continuous processes. This review first discusses approaches for continuous cell culture, with a focus on perfusion-enabling cell separation technologies including gravitational, centrifugal, and acoustic settling, as well as filtration-based techniques. We follow with a review of various continuous downstream unit operations, covering categories such as clarification, chromatography, formulation, and viral inactivation and filtration. The review ends by summarizing case studies of integrated and continuous processing as reported in the literature.

Bacterial inclusion bodies are industrially exploitable amyloids

Understanding the structure, functionalities and biology of functional amyloids is an issue of emerging interest. Inclusion bodies, namely protein clusters formed in recombinant bacteria during protein production processes, have emerged as unanticipated, highly tunable models for the scrutiny of the physiology and architecture of functional amyloids. Based on an amyloidal skeleton combined with varying amounts of native or native-like protein forms, bacterial inclusion bodies exhibit an unusual arrangement that confers mechanical stability, biological activity and conditional protein release, being thus exploitable as versatile biomaterials. The applicability of inclusion bodies in biotechnology as enriched sources of protein and reusable catalysts, and in biomedicine as biocompatible topographies, nanopills or mimetics of endocrine secretory granules has been largely validated. Beyond these uses, the dissection of how recombinant bacteria manage the aggregation of functional protein species into structures of highly variable complexity offers insights about unsuspected connections between protein quality (conformational status compatible with functionality) and cell physiology.

White paper on continuous bioprocessing. May 20-21, 2014 Continuous Manufacturing Symposium

There is a growing interest in realizing the benefits of continuous processing in biologics manufacturing, which is reflected by the significant number of industrial and academic researchers who are actively involved in the development of continuous bioprocessing systems. These efforts are further encouraged by guidance expressed in recent US FDA conference presentations. The advantages of continuous manufacturing include sustained operation with consistent product quality, reduced equipment size, high-volumetric productivity, streamlined process flow, low-process cycle times, and reduced capital and operating cost. This technology, however, poses challenges, which need to be addressed before routine implementation is considered. This paper, which is based on the available literature and input from a large number of reviewers, is intended to provide a consensus of the opportunities, technical needs, and strategic directions for continuous bioprocessing. The discussion is supported by several examples illustrating various architectures of continuous bioprocessing systems.

Enabling technologies: fermentation and downstream processing

Efficient parallel tools for bioprocess design, consequent application of the concepts for metabolic process analysis as well as innovative downstream processing techniques are enabling technologies for new industrial bioprocesses from an engineering point of view. Basic principles, state-of-the-art techniques and cutting-edge technologies are briefly reviewed. Emphasis is on parallel bioreactors for bioprocess design, biochemical systems characterization and metabolic control analysis, as well as on preparative chromatography, affinity filtration and protein crystallization on a process scale.

Manufacturing of recombinant therapeutic proteins in microbial systems

Recombinant therapeutic proteins have gained enormous importance for clinical applications. The first recombinant products have been produced in E. coli more than 20 years ago. Although with the advent of antibody-based therapeutics mammalian expression systems have experienced a major boost, microbial expression systems continue to be widely used in industry. Their intrinsic advantages, such as rapid growth, high yields and ease of manipulation, make them the premier choice for expression of non-glycosylated peptides and proteins. Innovative product classes such as antibody fragments or alternative binding molecules will further expand the use of microbial systems. Even more, novel, engineered production hosts and integrated technology platforms hold enormous potential for future applications. This review summarizes current applications and trends for development, production and analytical characterization of recombinant therapeutic proteins in microbial systems.

Continuous matrix assisted refolding of alpha-lactalbumin by ion exchange chromatography with recycling of aggregates combined with ultradiafiltration

Continuous matrix assisted refolding (MAR) can be achieved on a solid support by using a continuous chromatographic system. Recycling the aggregate fraction, simultaneously formed during a refolding reaction, can further increase the refolding yield. Due to the nature of this reaction, aggregates are the main reason for a refolding yield below stoichiometric conversion. A preparative continuous annular chromatographic system (P-CAC) equipped with an ion exchange resin was used to continuously refold the model protein alpha-lactalbumin. For this purpose, this protein was denatured, reduced and adsorbed on the ion exchange resin. Elution was performed with or without redox reagents in the buffer system permitting fast formation of the native disulfide bonds. In the case redox reagents were present, the protein refolds then during its residence time on the matrix. However, aggregate formation is also increased and refolding yields are lower. Tightly bound aggregates were removed from the column by 2M guanidinium hydrochloride. In order to increase the system yield, this aggregate fraction was recycled after lowering the conductivity by ultradiafiltration and adjustment of the protein concentration by dilution. For on-column refolding, recycling of aggregates at a recycling rate of 0.17 increased the system yield from 25% to 30%. An algorithm was developed to show interdependencies of the single influencing parameters. The operability of the system was demonstrated but limitations due to instability of the P-CAC, especially inhomogeneous flow and peak wobbling, have to be considered.