L-tryptophan and dipeptide derivatives for supercoiled plasmid DNA purification

Peptides and pseudopeptide ligands: a powerful toolbox for the affinity purification of current and next-generation biotherapeutics

Following the consolidation of therapeutic proteins in the fight against cancer, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative diseases, recent advancements in biochemistry and biotechnology have introduced a host of next-generation biotherapeutics, such as CRISPR-Cas nucleases, stem and car-T cells, and viral vectors for gene therapy. With these drugs entering the clinical pipeline, a new challenge lies ahead: how to manufacture large quantities of high-purity biotherapeutics that meet the growing demand by clinics and biotech companies worldwide. The protein ligands employed by the industry are inadequate to confront this challenge: while featuring high binding affinity and selectivity, these ligands require laborious engineering and expensive manufacturing, are prone to biochemical degradation, and pose safety concerns related to their bacterial origin. Peptides and pseudopeptides make excellent candidates to form a new cohort of ligands for the purification of next-generation biotherapeutics. Peptide-based ligands feature excellent target biorecognition, low or no toxicity and immunogenicity, and can be manufactured affordably at large scale. This work presents a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature on peptide-based ligands and their use in the affinity purification of established and upcoming biological drugs. A comparative analysis is first presented on peptide engineering principles, the development of ligands targeting different biomolecular targets, and the promises and challenges connected to the industrial implementation of peptide ligands. The reviewed literature is organized in (i) conventional (α-)peptides targeting antibodies and other therapeutic proteins, gene therapy products, and therapeutic cells; (ii) cyclic peptides and pseudo-peptides for protein purification and capture of viral and bacterial pathogens; and (iii) the forefront of peptide mimetics, such as β-/γ-peptides, peptoids, foldamers, and stimuli-responsive peptides for advanced processing of biologics.

Recent advances in chromatographic purification of plasmid DNA for gene therapy and DNA vaccines: A review

The wide spread of infectious diseases have provoked the scientists to develop new types of vaccines. Among the different types of vaccines, the recently discovered plasmid DNA vaccines, have gained tremendous attentions in the last few decades as a modern approach of vaccination. The scientific interest in plasmid DNA vaccines is attributed to their prominent efficacy as they trigger not only the cellular immune response but also the humoral immune responses. Moreover, pDNA vaccines are easily to be stored, shipped and produced. However, the purification of the pDNA vaccines is a crucial step in their production and administration, which is usually conducted by different chromatographic techniques. This review summarizes the most recent chromatographic purification methods provided in the literature during the last five years following our last review in 2013, including affinity chromatography, hydrophobic interaction chromatography, ion exchange chromatography, multimodal chromatography, sample displacement chromatography and miscellaneous chromatographic methods.

Naphthalene amine support for G-quadruplex isolation

The selective isolation of G-quadruplex (G4) using affinity ligands that bind tightly and selectively is a valuable strategy for discovering new G4 binders for the separation of G4 from duplexes or the discrimination of G4 structures.