Thermoresponsive Agarose Based Microparticles for Antibody Separation.

We report the development of thermoresponsive 4-mercaptoethylpyridine (MEP)-based chromatographic microsphere based resins for antibody separation that show switchable release abilities by adsorbing immunoglobulins at 40 °C and releasing the proteins at 5 °C. The thermoswitchable release properties were introduced to the porous resins by the grafting of linear poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) chains synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, which were modified to possess MEP end functionalities. Adsorption of γ-globulins as a model antibody on the shortest PNIPAM-MEP (3 kDa) grafted microparticles display binding capacities of up to 20 g L(-1) at 40 °C and a significant decrease in binding capacity to less than 2.5 g L(-1) at 5 °C. By switching the temperature to 5 °C, the release of bound γ-globulins is shown to be as high as 90%. The effects of polymer chain length on the binding capacity are studied in detail and found to be critical as they influence the density of MEP functionalities on the particle surfaces.

Integrated system for temperature-controlled fast protein liquid chromatography. III. Continuous downstream processing of monoclonal antibodies.

Three different applications of travelling heating zone reactor (THZR) chromatography for the downstream processing of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are described. mAb containing feedstocks were applied to a fixed bed of the thermoresponsive rProtein A matrix, Byzen Pro™, contained in a bespoke column (held at 15 °C) fitted with a travelling heating (42 °C) device encircling a narrow section of the column. For the demonstration of continuous concentration, uninterrupted loading of 1.0 g/L mAb in a pH 8 binding buffer was synchronized with 5 repeated movements of the heating zone along the column's full length at a velocity of 0.1 mm/s. Elution of mAbs was induced solely by the travelling heating zone's action, each full movement generating a sharp concentrated elution peak accompanied by a small transient mAb concentration-dependent dip in conductivity. Quasi-steady-state operation occurred from the third elution onwards, delivering a mean mAb concentration of 4.9 g/L and process yield >93%. Quasi-continuous separation of the target mAb (1.41 g/L) from bovine serum albumin, BSA (1.0 g/L), was achieved by cyclically alternating the feeding of the mAb + BSA feedstock, with that of the binding buffer alone; supply of the latter was timed to coincide with movement of the heating zone. Accurate coordination of the heating zone's travel and switching from feed to buffer permitted quasi-steady-state collection (elutions 3-6) of sharp peaks of mAb in high purity (98.7%) and yield (88.7%) in 4.5-fold concentrated form, with BSA exiting in the flow through fractions between successive mAb elution peaks. Fully automated THZR-mediated quasi-continuous buffer exchange of 1.34 g/L mAb from a phosphate buffer pH 8 into a HEPES buffer pH 8 of slightly lower conductivity was performed over a 19 h period by carefully timed switching from one feed solution to the other and back again, whilst synchronising movement of the heating zone with feeding of the exchange buffer. Quasi-steady-state operation (elutions 2-9) resulted in an average eluted mAb yield of 94.5% and concentration of 4.8 g/L. Triggering movement of the heating zone slightly ahead of the switch from mAb feed to exchange buffer permitted the positioning of mAb elution peaks in 9 mL volume segments with the lowest recorded conductivity. Measurements of buffer exchange performance conducted with two 'protein-free' systems demonstrated that compared to tangential flow filtration in diafiltration mode, which represents the 'state-of-the-art' technology for buffer exchange, the THZR chromatography based approach affords a >60% saving in minimum volume of exchange buffer required to remove 99.9% of the original buffer. Combined far and near UV circular dichroism, intrinsic fluorescence and thermal melting experiments showed that, unlike conventional Protein A/G affinity chromatography, the conditions for THZR Protein A chromatography respect maintenance of a favourable structural profile for mAbs.

Dual-Gated Microparticles for Switchable Antibody Release.

We pioneer the design of dual-gated microparticles, both responsive to changes in temperature and pH, for stimuli-responsive chromatography targeted at the efficient separation of antibodies. Dual-gated microspheres were synthesized by introducing RAFT-based thiol-terminal block copolymers of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-b-4-vinylpyridine) (P(NIPAM-b-4VP, 4800 ≤ Mn/Da ≤ 10 000, featuring block length ratios of 29:7, 29:15, and 29:30, respectively) by thiol-epoxy driven ligation to the surface of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) microparticles (10-12 µm), whereby the 4-vinylpyridine units within the lateral chain enable protein binding. The switchable protein release abilities of the resulting microparticle resins are demonstrated by adsorption of immunoglobulins at 40 °C and pH 8 and their release at 5 °C or pH 3, respectively. We demonstrate that P(NIPAM29-b-4VP30)-grafted PGMA particles show a maximum adsorption capacity for immunoglobulins of 18.9 mg mL-1 settled resin at 40 °C/pH 8, whereas the adsorption capacity decreased to 7.5 mg mL-1 settled resin at 5 °C while retaining the pH value, allowing the unloading of the chromatographic column by a facile temperature switch. Critically, regeneration of the dual-gated microspheres became possible by lowering the pH to 3.

Integrated system for temperature-controlled fast protein liquid chromatography. II. Optimized adsorbents and 'single column continuous operation'.

Continued advance of a new temperature-controlled chromatography system, comprising a column filled with thermoresponsive stationary phase and a travelling cooling zone reactor (TCZR), is described. Nine copolymer grafted thermoresponsive cation exchangers (thermoCEX) with different balances of thermoresponsive (N-isopropylacrylamide), hydrophobic (N-tert-butylacrylamide) and negatively charged (acrylic acid) units were fashioned from three cross-linked agarose media differing in particle size and pore dimensions. Marked differences in grafted copolymer composition on finished supports were sourced to base matrix hydrophobicity. In batch binding tests with lactoferrin, maximum binding capacity (qmax) increased strongly as a function of charge introduced, but became increasingly independent of temperature, as the ability of the tethered copolymer networks to switch between extended and collapsed states was lost. ThermoCEX formed from Sepharose CL-6B (A2), Superose 6 Prep Grade (B2) and Superose 12 Prep Grade (C1) under identical conditions displayed the best combination of thermoresponsiveness (qmax,50°C/qmax,10°C ratios of 3.3, 2.2 and 2.8 for supports 'A2', 'B2' and 'C1' respectively) and lactoferrin binding capacity (qmax,50°C∼56, 29 and 45mg/g for supports 'A2', 'B2' and 'C1' respectively), and were selected for TCZR chromatography. With the cooling zone in its parked position, thermoCEX filled columns were saturated with lactoferrin at a binding temperature of 35°C, washed with equilibration buffer, before initiating the first of 8 or 12 consecutive movements of the cooling zone along the column at 0.1mm/s. A reduction in particle diameter (A2→B2) enhanced lactoferrin desorption, while one in pore diameter (B2→C1) had the opposite effect. In subsequent TCZR experiments conducted with thermoCEX 'B2' columns continuously fed with lactoferrin or 'lactoferrin+bovine serum albumin' whilst simultaneously moving the cooling zone, lactoferrin was intermittently concentrated at regular intervals within the exiting flow as sharp uniformly sized peaks. Halving the lactoferrin feed concentration to 0.5mg/mL, slowed acquisition of steady state, but increased the average peak concentration factor from 7.9 to 9.2. Finally, continuous TCZR mediated separation of lactoferrin from bovine serum albumin was successfully demonstrated. While the latter's presence did not affect the time to reach steady state, the average lactoferrin mass per peak and concentration factor both fell (respectively from 30.7 to 21.4mg and 7.9 to 6.3), and lactoferrin loss in the flowthrough between elution peaks increased (from 2.6 to 12.2mg). Fouling of the thermoCEX matrix by lipids conveyed into the feed by serum albumin is tentatively proposed as responsible for the observed drops in lactoferrin binding and recovery.