Mechanistic modeling of empty-full separation in recombinant adeno-associated virus production using anion-exchange membrane chromatography.

Recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors (rAAVs) have become an industry-standard technology in the field of gene therapy, but there are still challenges to be addressed in their biomanufacturing. One of the biggest challenges is the removal of capsid species other than that which contains the gene of interest. In this work, we develop a mechanistic model for the removal of empty capsids-those that contain no genetic material-and enrichment of full rAAV using anion-exchange membrane chromatography. The mechanistic model was calibrated using linear gradient experiments, resulting in good agreement with the experimental data. The model was then applied to optimize the purification process through maximization of yield studying the impact of mobile phase salt concentration and pH, isocratic wash and elution length, flow rate, percent full (purity) requirement, loading density (challenge), and the use of single-step or two-step elution modes. A solution from the optimization with purity of 90% and recovery yield of 84% was selected and successfully validated, as the model could predict the recovery yield with remarkable fidelity and was able to find process conditions that led to significant enrichment. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first case study of the application of de novo mechanistic modeling for the enrichment of full capsids in rAAV manufacturing, and it serves as demonstration of the potential of mechanistic modeling in rAAV process development.

Evaluation of predictive tools for cell culture clarification performance.

Recent advances in the productivity of industrial mammalian cell culture processes have resulted in part in increased cell density. This increase and the associated increase in cellular debris are known to challenge harvest operations, however this understanding is limited and largely qualitative. Part of the issue arises from the heterogeneous size and composition of cellular debris, which makes harvest feed stream extremely difficult to characterize. Improved characterization methods would facilitate the development of clarification approaches that are consistent and scalable. This work describes how both particle size and cholesterol analysis can be used to characterize the feed stream. Particle size analysis by focused beam reflectance and dynamic light scattering are shown to be predictive of centrate filterability under certain harvest conditions. Because of the particle size range limitations of each detector, their applicability is limited to a particular stage or method of clarification. The measurement of cholesterol present in the cell culture supernatant or centrate was successfully used in providing relative amount of lysed cellular debris and enabled us to predict clarification performance of acid precipitated harvest regardless of particle size distribution profile.

Modeling and robust pooling design of a preparative cation-exchange chromatography step for purification of monoclonal antibody monomer from aggregates.

This study has implemented and calibrated a model that describes the separation of the monomer of monoclonal antibodies from the dimer and larger oligomers on preparative-scale using cation-exchange chromatography. A general rate model with temperature dependent diffusion was coupled to a pH- and temperature-dependent steric mass action model. The model was shown to predict the retention of the monomer, dimer, and oligomer at low loadings for different pH levels and temperatures. Additionally, the model was shown to adequately predict the elution behavior of the monomer and soluble aggregates at high loadings within the same ranges with some limitations. The model was not able to accurately describe the shape of the product break-through curves or the slight levels of co-elution of the dimer and oligomer with the monomer at higher pH. The model was used to predict how 12 process variations impact the separation. The model is used to establish an elution end collection criterion such that the step can robustly provide the target purity of monomers.

Cation exchange chromatography provides effective retrovirus clearance for antibody purification processes.

One measure taken to ensure safety of biotherapeutics produced in mammalian cells is to demonstrate the clearance of potential viral contaminants by downstream purification processes. This paper provides evidence that cation exchange chromatography (CEX), a widely used polishing step for monoclonal antibody (mAb) production, can effectively and reproducibly remove xMuLV, a retrovirus used as a model of non-infectious retrovirus-like particles found in Chinese hamster ovary cells. The dominant mechanism for xMuLV clearance by the strong cation exchanger, Fractogel SO 3⁻, is by retention of the virus via adsorption instead of inactivation. Experimental data defining the design space for effective xMuLV removal by Fractogel SO 3⁻ with respect to operational pH, elution ionic strength, loading, and load/equilibration buffer ionic strength are provided. Additionally, xMuLV is able to bind to other CEX resins, such as Fractogel COO⁻ and SP Sepharose Fast Flow, suggesting that this phenomenon is not restricted to one type of CEX resin. Taken together, the data indicate that CEX chromatography can be a robust and reproducible removal step for the model retrovirus xMuLV.