New orphan disease therapies from the proteome of industrial plasma processing waste- a treatment for aceruloplasminemia.

Plasma-derived therapeutic proteins are produced through an industrial fractionation process where proteins are purified from individual intermediates, some of which remain unused and are discarded. Relatively few plasma-derived proteins are exploited clinically, with most of available plasma being directed towards the manufacture of immunoglobulin and albumin. Although the plasma proteome provides opportunities to develop novel protein replacement therapies, particularly for rare diseases, the high cost of plasma together with small patient populations impact negatively on the development of plasma-derived orphan drugs. Enabling therapeutics development from unused plasma fractionation intermediates would therefore constitute a substantial innovation. To this objective, we characterized the proteome of unused plasma fractionation intermediates and prioritized proteins for their potential as new candidate therapies for human disease. We selected ceruloplasmin, a plasma ferroxidase, as a potential therapy for aceruloplasminemia, an adult-onset ultra-rare neurological disease caused by iron accumulation as a result of ceruloplasmin mutations. Intraperitoneally administered ceruloplasmin, purified from an unused plasma fractionation intermediate, was able to prevent neurological, hepatic and hematological phenotypes in ceruloplasmin-deficient mice. These data demonstrate the feasibility of transforming industrial waste plasma fraction into a raw material for manufacturing of new candidate proteins for replacement therapies, optimizing plasma use and reducing waste generation.

A simple method for large-scale purification of plasma-derived apo-transferrin.

We investigated and optimized a purification process, suitable for industrial scale, to obtain pharmaceutical grade apo-Tf (apo-transferrin), preserving its physiological properties and functions. Apo-Tf was obtained from fraction IV subfraction 1 and IV subfraction 4 (fraction IV-1,4), a waste product of the Cohn fractionation process, performing a single chromatographic run and two viral inactivation/removal steps. The structural integrity and the biological activity of the final product were extensively tested. The yield of apo-Tf produced was 80% on laboratory scale and 90% in scale-up lots, and the purity was higher than 95%. The purified protein preserves iron- and receptor-binding activities and shows a normal glycosylation pattern. The single chromatographic step process presented here provides an efficient means to prepare commercial quantities of the protein. The final product is sterile and two viral inactivation/removal steps were introduced into the process.