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Huato Hernandez J, Boenning K, Kavara A, Schofield M. Membrane chromatography for AAV full capsid enrichment: Process development to scale up. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci 2024; 1244:124258. [PMID: 39089064 DOI: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2024.124258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2024] [Revised: 07/18/2024] [Accepted: 07/23/2024] [Indexed: 08/03/2024]
Abstract
The recent FDA approval of several adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies is driving demand for AAV production. One of the biggest AAV manufacturing challenges is removing "empty" capsids, which do not contain the gene of interest. Anion exchange chromatography has emerged as the leading solution for scalable full capsid enrichment. Here we develop a process for the baseline separation of empty and full AAV capsids using anion exchange membrane chromatography. This process development approach utilized AAV serotypes 8 and 9 and traverses initial screening of separation conditions up to manufacturing-scale processes. Process development of a two-step elution was performed via response surface DoE, exploring conductivity and the length of the first elution step. The results from response surfaces were used to construct statistical models of the process operating space. These models provide optimal conditions for recovery and purity, both of which can exceed 70 %. Model predictions were then validated at small scale prior to scale-up. We present the results from our scale-up purification and show that purity and yield are consistent with the results obtained from the response surface model.
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Pham Q, Glicksman J, Chatterjee A. Chemical approaches to probe and engineer AAV vectors. NANOSCALE 2024; 16:13820-13833. [PMID: 38978480 PMCID: PMC11271820 DOI: 10.1039/d4nr01300j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2024] [Accepted: 06/14/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024]
Abstract
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has emerged as the most promising vector for in vivo human gene therapy, with several therapeutic approvals in the last few years and countless more under development. Underlying this remarkable success are several attractive features that AAV offers, including lack of pathogenicity, low immunogenicity, long-term gene expression without genomic integration, the ability to infect both dividing and non-dividing cells, etc. However, the commonly used wild-type AAV capsids in therapeutic development present significant challenges, including inadequate tissue specificity and the need for large doses to attain therapeutic effectiveness, raising safety concerns. Additionally, significant preexisting adaptive immunity against most natural capsids, and the development of such anti-capsid immunity after the first treatment, represent major challenges. Strategies to engineer the AAV capsid are critically needed to address these challenges and unlock the full promise of AAV gene therapy. Chemical modification of the AAV capsid has recently emerged as a powerful new approach to engineer its properties. Unlike genetic strategies, which can be more disruptive to the delicate capsid assembly and packaging processes, "late-stage" chemical modification of the assembled capsid-whether at natural amino acid residues or site-specifically installed noncanonical amino acid residues-often enables a versatile approach to introducing new properties to the capsid. This review summarizes the significant recent progress in AAV capsid engineering strategies, with a particular focus on chemical modifications in advancing the next generation of AAV-based gene therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Quan Pham
- Department of Chemistry, Boston College, 2609 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
| | - Jake Glicksman
- Department of Chemistry, Boston College, 2609 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
| | - Abhishek Chatterjee
- Department of Chemistry, Boston College, 2609 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
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Gurrola TE, Effah SN, Sariyer IK, Dampier W, Nonnemacher MR, Wigdahl B. Delivering CRISPR to the HIV-1 reservoirs. Front Microbiol 2024; 15:1393974. [PMID: 38812680 PMCID: PMC11133543 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1393974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/31/2024] Open
Abstract
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection is well known as one of the most complex and difficult viral infections to cure. The difficulty in developing curative strategies arises in large part from the development of latent viral reservoirs (LVRs) within anatomical and cellular compartments of a host. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/ CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system shows remarkable potential for the inactivation and/or elimination of integrated proviral DNA within host cells, however, delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to infected cells is still a challenge. In this review, the main factors impacting delivery, the challenges for delivery to each of the LVRs, and the current successes for delivery to each reservoir will be discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Theodore E. Gurrola
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Center for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Samuel N. Effah
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Center for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Ilker K. Sariyer
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Inflammation and Center for Neurovirology and Gene Editing, Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Will Dampier
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Center for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Michael R. Nonnemacher
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Center for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Brian Wigdahl
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Center for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
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Pupo A, Fernández A, Low SH, François A, Suárez-Amarán L, Samulski RJ. AAV vectors: The Rubik's cube of human gene therapy. Mol Ther 2022; 30:3515-3541. [PMID: 36203359 PMCID: PMC9734031 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2022.09.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 50.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2021] [Revised: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Defective genes account for ∼80% of the total of more than 7,000 diseases known to date. Gene therapy brings the promise of a one-time treatment option that will fix the errors in patient genetic coding. Recombinant viruses are highly efficient vehicles for in vivo gene delivery. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors offer unique advantages, such as tissue tropism, specificity in transduction, eliciting of a relatively low immune responses, no incorporation into the host chromosome, and long-lasting delivered gene expression, making them the most popular viral gene delivery system in clinical trials, with three AAV-based gene therapy drugs already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or European Medicines Agency (EMA). Despite the success of AAV vectors, their usage in particular scenarios is still limited due to remaining challenges, such as poor transduction efficiency in certain tissues, low organ specificity, pre-existing humoral immunity to AAV capsids, and vector dose-dependent toxicity in patients. In the present review, we address the different approaches to improve AAV vectors for gene therapy with a focus on AAV capsid selection and engineering, strategies to overcome anti-AAV immune response, and vector genome design, ending with a glimpse at vector production methods and the current state of recombinant AAV (rAAV) at the clinical level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amaury Pupo
- R&D Department, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), 20 T.W. Alexander, Suite 110 RTP, Durham, NC 27709, USA
| | - Audry Fernández
- R&D Department, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), 20 T.W. Alexander, Suite 110 RTP, Durham, NC 27709, USA
| | - Siew Hui Low
- R&D Department, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), 20 T.W. Alexander, Suite 110 RTP, Durham, NC 27709, USA
| | - Achille François
- Viralgen. Parque Tecnológico de Guipuzkoa, Edificio Kuatro, Paseo Mikeletegui, 83, 20009 San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Lester Suárez-Amarán
- R&D Department, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), 20 T.W. Alexander, Suite 110 RTP, Durham, NC 27709, USA
| | - Richard Jude Samulski
- R&D Department, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), 20 T.W. Alexander, Suite 110 RTP, Durham, NC 27709, USA,Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA,Corresponding author: Richard Jude Samulski, R&D Department, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), 20 T.W. Alexander, Suite 110 RTP, NC 27709, USA.
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Frenkel R, Tribby D, Boumajny B, Larson N, Sampson M, Barney C, Bergelson S, Sosic Z, Yeung B. ACUVRA: Anion-Exchange Chromatography UV-Ratio Analysis-A QC-Friendly Method for Monitoring Adeno-Associated Virus Empty Capsid Content To Support Process Development and GMP Release Testing. AAPS J 2022; 25:3. [PMID: 36414847 DOI: 10.1208/s12248-022-00768-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 10/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The genome content of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors is critical to the safety and potency of AAV-based gene therapy products. Empty capsids are considered a product-related impurity and a critical quality attribute (CQA) of the drug product, thus requiring characterization throughout the production process to demonstrate they are controlled to acceptable levels in the final drug product. Anion exchange chromatography has been used to achieve separation between empty and full capsids, but requires method development and gradient optimization for different serotypes and formulations. Here, we describe an alternative approach to quantitation that does not rely on achieving separation between empty and full capsids, but instead uses the well-established relationship between absorbance at UV A260/A280 and relation to DNA/protein content, in combination with anion-exchange chromatography to allow one to calculate the relative proportion of empty and full capsids in AAV samples from a single peak. We call this approach ACUVRA: Anion-exchange Chromatography UV-Ratio Analysis, and show the applicability of the method through a case study with recombinant AAV2 (rAAV2) process intermediates and drug substance. Method qualification and GMP validation in a quality control (QC) laboratory results show that ACUVRA is a fit-for-purpose method for process development support and characterization, while also being a QC-friendly option for GMP release testing at all stages of clinical development. Graphical abstract.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruth Frenkel
- Department of Gene Therapy Analytical Development, Biogen Inc, 255 Binney St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA.
| | - Dana Tribby
- Department of Gene Therapy Analytical Development, Biogen Inc, 255 Binney St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA
| | - Boris Boumajny
- Department of Gene Therapy Analytical Development, Biogen Inc, 255 Binney St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA
| | - Nicholas Larson
- Department of Gene Therapy Analytical Development, Biogen Inc, 255 Binney St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA
| | - Matthew Sampson
- Department of Quality Control-Analytical Technology, Biogen Inc, 5000 Davis Dr, Durham, North Carolina, 27709, USA
| | - Christopher Barney
- Department of Quality Control-Analytical Technology, Biogen Inc, 5000 Davis Dr, Durham, North Carolina, 27709, USA
| | - Svetlana Bergelson
- Department of Gene Therapy Analytical Development, Biogen Inc, 255 Binney St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA
| | - Zoran Sosic
- Department of Gene Therapy Analytical Development, Biogen Inc, 255 Binney St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA
| | - Bernice Yeung
- Department of Gene Therapy Analytical Development, Biogen Inc, 255 Binney St, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142, USA
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Wagner HJ, Weber W, Fussenegger M. Synthetic Biology: Emerging Concepts to Design and Advance Adeno-Associated Viral Vectors for Gene Therapy. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2021; 8:2004018. [PMID: 33977059 PMCID: PMC8097373 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202004018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2020] [Revised: 12/18/2020] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Three recent approvals and over 100 ongoing clinical trials make adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based vectors the leading gene delivery vehicles in gene therapy. Pharmaceutical companies are investing in this small and nonpathogenic gene shuttle to increase the therapeutic portfolios within the coming years. This prospect of marking a new era in gene therapy has fostered both investigations of the fundamental AAV biology as well as engineering studies to enhance delivery vehicles. Driven by the high clinical potential, a new generation of synthetic-biologically engineered AAV vectors is on the rise. Concepts from synthetic biology enable the control and fine-tuning of vector function at different stages of cellular transduction and gene expression. It is anticipated that the emerging field of synthetic-biologically engineered AAV vectors can shape future gene therapeutic approaches and thus the design of tomorrow's gene delivery vectors. This review describes and discusses the recent trends in capsid and vector genome engineering, with particular emphasis on synthetic-biological approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanna J. Wagner
- Department of Biosystems Science and EngineeringETH ZurichMattenstrasse 26Basel4058Switzerland
- Faculty of BiologyUniversity of FreiburgSchänzlestraße 1Freiburg79104Germany
- Signalling Research Centres BIOSS and CIBSSUniversity of FreiburgSchänzlestraße 18Freiburg79104Germany
| | - Wilfried Weber
- Faculty of BiologyUniversity of FreiburgSchänzlestraße 1Freiburg79104Germany
- Signalling Research Centres BIOSS and CIBSSUniversity of FreiburgSchänzlestraße 18Freiburg79104Germany
| | - Martin Fussenegger
- Department of Biosystems Science and EngineeringETH ZurichMattenstrasse 26Basel4058Switzerland
- Faculty of ScienceUniversity of BaselKlingelbergstrasse 50Basel4056Switzerland
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Abstract
Therapeutic viral gene delivery is an emerging technology which aims to correct genetic mutations by introducing new genetic information to cells either to correct a faulty gene or to initiate cell death in oncolytic treatments. In recent years, significant scientific progress has led to several clinical trials resulting in the approval of gene therapies for human treatment. However, successful therapies remain limited due to a number of challenges such as inefficient cell uptake, low transduction efficiency (TE), limited tropism, liver toxicity and immune response. To adress these issues and increase the number of available therapies, additives from a broad range of materials like polymers, peptides, lipids, nanoparticles, and small molecules have been applied so far. The scope of this review is to highlight these selected delivery systems from a materials perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kübra Kaygisiz
- Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
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