A nonchromatographic process for purification of secretory immunoglobulins from caprine whey

Neutralising Effects of Different Antibodies on Clostridioides difficile Toxins TcdA and TcdB in a Translational Approach

Given the high prevalence of intestinal disease in humans and animals, there is a strong need for clinically relevant models recapitulating gastrointestinal systems, ideally replacing in vivo models in accordance with the principles of the 3R. We established a canine organoid system and analysed the neutralising effects of recombinant versus natural antibodies on Clostridioides difficile toxins A and B in this in vitro system. Sulforhodamine B cytotoxicity assays in 2D and FITC-dextran barrier integrity assays on basal-out and apical-out organoids revealed that recombinant, but not natural antibodies, effectively neutralised C. difficile toxins. Our findings emphasise that canine intestinal organoids can be used to test different components and suggest that they can be further refined to also mirror complex interactions between the intestinal epithelium and other cells.

Fractal dimension of antibody-PEG precipitate: Light microscopy for the reconstruction of 3D precipitate structures

Protein and in particular antibody precipitation by PEG is a cost-effective alternative for the first capture step. The 3D structure of precipitates has a large impact on the process parameters for the recovery and dissolution, but current technologies for determination of precipitate structures are either very time consuming (cryo-TEM) or only generate an average fractal dimension (light scattering). We developed a light microscopy based reconstruction of 3D structures of individual particles with a resolution of 0.1-0.2 µm and used this method to characterize particle populations generated by batch as well as continuous precipitation in different shear stress environments. The resulting precipitate structures show a broad distribution in terms of fractal dimension. While the average fractal dimension is significantly different for batch and continuous precipitation, the distribution is broad and samples overlap significantly. The precipitate flocs were monofractal from micro- to nanoscale showing a random but consistent nature of precipitate formation. We showed that the fractal dimension and 3D reconstruction is a valuable tool for characterization of protein precipitate processes. The current switch from batch to continuous manufacturing has to take the 3D structure and population of different protein precipitates into account in their design, engineering, and scale up.

Hindered diffusion of proteins in mixture adsorption on porous anion exchangers and impact on flow-through purification of large proteins

Complex adsorption kinetics behaviors of proteins in mixtures hampers chromatographic process development and complicates model-based prediction of separation. We investigated the adsorption characteristics of mixtures comprised of a larger protein (secretory immunoglobulins or thyroglobulin) and a smaller protein (serum albumin or green fluorescence protein) on the small-pore anion exchanger Q Sepharose FF. Confocal laser scanning microscopy measurements revealed that binding of the large protein was extremely slow and eventually stopped completely after the adsorption front penetrated just a few μm into the particle. Binding capacities after 24 h of incubation were nevertheless around 35 mg/mL of particle which is relatively high when considering that only a fraction of the particle was saturated, suggesting that locally-high bound protein concentrations are attained in a layer close to the particle surface. During mixture adsorption, the bound protein layer also significantly hindered diffusion of the smaller proteins into the particles resulting in about three times slower adsorption kinetics compared to single component adsorption. The combined effects of restricted diffusion and protein binding explain why flow-through purification of these mixtures with the small-pore resin Q Sepharose FF is effective under practical conditions. In this resin, diffusion of secretory immunoglobulins (or thyroglobulin) is restricted in the small pores so that despite their intrinsically greater affinity for the resin, much less binds compared to small proteins. Using the large-pore resin POROS 50 HQ results in faster transport, but also in more binding of secretory immunoglobulins (or thyroglobulin) compared to smaller protein impurities, preventing effective flow-through purification.