Considerations for Buffering Agent Selection for Frozen rAAV2 Mediated Gene Therapy Products.

The buffering component selection is a key criterion for the formulation development process for biopharmaceuticals. This decision for recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) mediated gene therapies is receiving special attention due to their rise in clinical trials which may require high concentration, frozen supply chain, and direct delivery to eye and central nervous system related sites. In the present study, we investigate the impact of rates of freezing and thawing on rAAV2 as a model serotype. It was observed that slow rate of thawing impacts rAAV2 colloidal stability in Phosphate based buffering system. Our pre-formulation workflow suggests that rAAV2 has maximum aggregation propensity between pH of 5.5 to 6.5. Thus, the overlap of maximum aggregation propensity pH range with acidic pH shift in Phosphate based buffering system during freezing and thawing appears to be responsible for 42-75% concentration drop noticed for rAAV2. This impact appears to be fully mitigated upon replacement of Phosphate based buffering system with an alternate buffer system such as Tris. The results reported in this study highlight associated risks and provide preliminary guidance on handling of early stage frozen rAAV mediated gene therapies.

Putting the Piezolyte Hypothesis under Pressure.

A group of small molecules that stabilize proteins against high hydrostatic pressure has been classified as piezolytes, a subset of stabilizing cosolutes. This distinction would imply that piezolytes counteract the effects of high hydrostatic pressure through effects on the volumetric properties of the protein. The purpose of this study was to determine if cosolutes proposed to be piezolytes have an effect on the volumetric properties of proteins through direct experimental measurements of volume changes upon unfolding of model proteins lysozyme and ribonuclease A, in solutions containing varying cosolute concentrations. Solutions containing the proposed piezolytes glutamate, sarcosine, and betaine were used, as well as solutions containing the denaturants guanidinium hydrochloride and urea. Changes in thermostability were monitored using differential scanning calorimetry whereas changes in volume were monitored using pressure perturbation calorimetry. Our findings indicate that increasing stabilizing cosolute concentration increases the stability and transition temperature of the protein, but does not change the temperature dependence of volume changes upon unfolding. The results suggest that the pressure stability of a protein in solution is not directly affected by the presence of these proposed piezolytes, and so they cannot be granted this distinction.

Applications of pressure perturbation calorimetry to study factors contributing to the volume changes upon protein unfolding.

BACKGROUND: Pressure perturbation calorimetry (PPC) is a biophysical method that allows direct determination of the volume changes upon conformational transitions in macromolecules. SCOPE OF THIS REVIEW: This review provides novel details of the use of PPC to analyze unfolding transitions in proteins. The emphasis is made on the data analysis as well as on the validation of different structural factors that define the volume changes upon unfolding. Four case studies are presented that show the application of these concepts to various protein systems. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS: The major conclusions are: 1. Knowledge of the thermodynamic parameters for heat induced unfolding facilitates the analysis of the PPC profiles. 2. The changes in the thermal expansion coefficient upon unfolding appear to be temperature dependent.3.Substitutions on the protein surface have negligible effects on the volume changes upon protein unfolding. 4. Structural plasticity of proteins defines the position dependent effect of amino acid substitutions of the residues buried in the native state. 5. Small proteins have positive volume changes upon unfolding which suggests difference in balance between the cavity/void volume in the native state and the hydration volume changes upon unfolding as compared to the large proteins that have negative volume changes. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: The information provided here gives a better understanding and deeper insight into the role played by various factors in defining the volume changes upon protein unfolding.

Thermal expansivities of peptides, polypeptides and proteins as measured by pressure perturbation calorimetry.

The main goal of this work was to provide direct experimental evidence that the expansivity of peptides, polypeptides and proteins as measured by pressure perturbation calorimetry (PPC), can serve as a proxy to characterize relative compactness of proteins, especially the denatured state ensemble. This is very important as currently only small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), intrinsic viscosity and, to a lesser degree, fluorescence resonance transfer (FRET) experiments are capable of reporting on the compactness of denatured state ensembles. We combined the expansivity measurements with other biophysical methods (far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and small angle X-ray scattering). Three case studies of the effects of conformational changes on the expansivity of polypeptides in solution are presented. We have shown that expansivity appears to be insensitive to the helix-coil transition, and appears to reflect the changes in hydration of the side-chains. We also observed that the expansivity is sensitive to the global conformation of the polypeptide chain and thus can be potentially used to probe hydration of different collapsed states of denatured or even intrinsically disordered proteins.

Freeze drying: exploring potential in development of orodispersible tablets of sumatriptan succinate.

The present investigation is aimed at development and characterization of sumatriptan succinate orodispersible tablets (ODTs) prepared by freeze drying technology. The tablet excipients were screened and the composition was optimized based on parameters which involved general appearance, tablet size and shape, uniformity of weight, mechanical properties, surface pH, moisture analysis, drug content, wetting time, in vitro and in vivo disintegration time. Furthermore, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron micrograph of cross-section of the tablet and in vitro dissolution studies were performed. Studies revealed that formulation containing gelatin-mannitol (3.75% w/v and 3.5% w/v, respectively) with camphor as a volatile pore forming agent exhibited superior properties with disintegration time of less than 10 s. Furthermore, in vitro release studies revealed 90% release of drug from developed dosage form within 10 min, thus suggesting rapid drug dissolution followed by faster onset of action, which forms a strong rationale for development of ODTs of sumatriptan succinate. The developed technology is simple, which involves few steps and can be easily scaled up. Thus, it holds enormous potential for commercial exploitation.

Structural and thermodynamic characterization of the recognition of the S100-binding peptides TRTK12 and p53 by calmodulin.

Calmodulin (CaM) is a multifunctional messenger protein that activates a wide variety of signaling pathways in eukaryotic cells in a calcium-dependent manner. CaM has been proposed to be functionally distinct from the S100 proteins, a related family of eukaryotic calcium-binding proteins. Previously, it was demonstrated that peptides derived from the actin-capping protein, TRTK12, and the tumor-suppressor protein, p53, interact with multiple members of the S100 proteins. To test the specificity of these peptides, they were screened using isothermal titration calorimetry against 16 members of the human S100 protein family, as well as CaM, which served as a negative control. Interestingly, both the TRTK12 and p53 peptides were found to interact with CaM. These interactions were further confirmed by both fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. These peptides have distinct sequences from the known CaM target sequences. The TRTK12 peptide was found to independently interact with both CaM domains and bind with a stoichiometry of 2:1 and dissociations constants Kd,C-term = 2 ± 1 µM and Kd,N-term = 14 ± 1 µM. In contrast, the p53 peptide was found to interact only with the C-terminal domain of CaM, Kd,C-term = 2 ± 1 µM, 25°C. Using NMR spectroscopy, the locations of the peptide binding sites were mapped onto the structure of CaM. The binding sites for both peptides were found to overlap with the binding interface for previously identified targets on both domains of CaM. This study demonstrates the plasticity of CaM in target binding and may suggest a possible overlap in target specificity between CaM and the S100 proteins.

Molecular determinants of expansivity of native globular proteins: a pressure perturbation calorimetry study.

There is a growing interest in understanding how hydrostatic pressure (P) impacts the thermodynamic stability (ΔG) of globular proteins. The pressure dependence of stability is defined by the change in volume upon denaturation, ΔV = (∂ΔG/∂P)T. The temperature dependence of change in volume upon denaturation itself is defined by the changes in thermal expansivity (ΔE), ΔE = (∂ΔV/∂T)P. The pressure perturbation calorimetry (PPC) allows direct experimental measurement of the thermal expansion coefficient, α = E/V, of a protein in the native, αN(T), and unfolded, αU(T), states as a function of temperature. We have shown previously that αU(T) is a nonlinear function of temperature but can be predicted well from the amino acid sequence using α(T) values for individual amino acids (J. Phys. Chem. B 2010, 114, 16166-16170). In this work, we report PPC results on a diverse set of nine proteins and discuss molecular factors that can potentially influence the thermal expansion coefficient, αN(T), and the thermal expansivity, EN(T), of proteins in the native state. Direct experimental measurements by PPC show that αN(T) and EN(T) functions vary significantly for different proteins. Using comparative analysis and site-directed mutagenesis, we have eliminated the role of various structural or thermodynamic properties of these proteins such as the number of amino acid residues, secondary structure content, packing density, electrostriction, dynamics, or thermostability. We have also shown that αN(T) and EN,sp(T) functions for a given protein are rather insensitive to the small changes in the amino acid sequence, suggesting that αN(T) and EN(T) functions might be defined by a topology of a given protein fold. This conclusion is supported by the similarity of αN(T) and EN(T) functions for six resurrected ancestral thioredoxins that vary in sequence but have very similar tertiary structure.

Novel interactions of the TRTK12 peptide with S100 protein family members: specificity and thermodynamic characterization.

The S100 protein family consists of small, dimeric proteins that exert their biological functions in response to changing calcium concentrations. S100B is the best-studied member and has been shown to interact with more than 20 binding partners in a calcium-dependent manner. The TRTK12 peptide, derived from the consensus binding sequence for S100B, has previously been found to interact with S100A1 and has been proposed to be a general binding partner of the S100 family. To test this hypothesis and gain a better understanding of the specificity of binding for the S100 proteins, 16 members of the human S100 family were screened against this peptide and its alanine variants. Novel interactions were found with only two family members, S100P and S100A2, indicating that TRTK12 selectively interacts with a small subset of the S100 proteins. Substantial promiscuity was observed in the binding site of S100B thereby accommodating variations in the peptide sequence, while S100A1, S100A2, and S100P exhibited larger differences in the binding constants for the TRTK12 alanine variants. This suggests that single-point substitutions can be used to selectively modulate the affinity of TRTK12 peptides for individual S100 proteins. This study has important implications for the rational drug design of inhibitors for the S100 proteins, which are involved in a variety of cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.