Use of phase plate cryo-EM reveals conformation diversity of therapeutic IgG with 50 kDa Fab fragment resolved below 6 Å.

While cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is fruitfully used for harvesting high-resolution structures of sizable macromolecules, its application to small or flexible proteins composed of small domains like immunoglobulin (IgG) remain challenging. Here, we applied single particle cryo-EM to Rituximab, a therapeutic IgG mediating anti-tumor toxicity, to explore its solution conformations. We found Rituximab molecules exhibited aggregates in cryo-EM specimens contrary to its solution behavior, and utilized a non-ionic detergent to successfully disperse them as isolated particles amenable to single particle analysis. As the detergent adversely reduced the protein-to-solvent contrast, we employed phase plate contrast to mitigate the impaired protein visibility. Assisted by phase plate imaging, we obtained a canonical three-arm IgG structure with other structures displaying variable arm densities co-existing in solution, affirming high flexibility of arm-connecting linkers. Furthermore, we showed phase plate imaging enables reliable structure determination of Fab to sub-nanometer resolution from ab initio, yielding a characteristic two-lobe structure that could be unambiguously docked with crystal structure. Our findings revealed conformation diversity of IgG and demonstrated phase plate was viable for cryo-EM analysis of small proteins without symmetry. This work helps extend cryo-EM boundaries, providing a valuable imaging and structural analysis framework for macromolecules with similar challenging features.

Biophysical Characterization of the Contribution of the Fab Region to the IgG-FcγRIIIa Interaction.

The cell-surface receptor FcγRIIIa is crucial to the efficacy of therapeutic antibodies as well as the immune response. The interaction of the Fc region of IgG molecules with FcγRIIIa has been characterized, but until recently, it was thought that the Fab regions were not involved in the interaction. To evaluate the influence of the Fab regions in a biophysical context, we carried out surface plasmon resonance analyses using recombinant FcγRIIIa ligands. A van't Hoff analysis revealed that compared to the interaction of the papain-digested Fc fragment with FcγRIIIa, the interaction of commercially available, full-length rituximab with FcγRIIIa had a more favorable binding enthalpy, a less favorable binding entropy, and a slower off rate. Similar results were obtained from analyses of IgG1 molecules and an IgG1-Fc fragment produced by Expi293 cells. For further validation, we also prepared a maltose-binding protein-linked IgG1-Fc fragment (MBP-Fc). The binding enthalpy of MBP-Fc was nearly equal to that of the IgG1-Fc fragment for the interaction with FcγRIIIa, indicating that such alternatives to the Fab domains as MBP do not positively contribute to the IgG-FcγRIIIa interactions. Our investigation strongly suggests that the Fab region directly interacts with FcγRIIIa, resulting in an increase in the binding enthalpy and a decrease in the dissociation rate, at the expense of favorable binding entropy.

FcγRIIIA affinity chromatography complements conventional functional characterization of rituximab.

Analytical and functional characterization of batches of biologics/biosimilar products are imperative towards qualifying them for pre-clinical and clinical investigations. Several orthogonal strategies are employed to characterize the functional attributes of these drugs. However, the use of conventional techniques for online monitoring of functional attributes is not feasible. Liquid chromatography is one of the crucial unit operations during the downstream processing of biopharmaceuticals. In this work, we have demonstrated the utility of FcγRIIIA affinity chromatography as an independent quantitative functional characterization tool. FcγRIIIA affinity chromatography aided in sequential elution of Rituximab glycoform mixtures, based on varying levels of galactosylation, and thereby the affinity for the receptor protein. The predominant glycans present in the three Rituximab glycoform mixture peaks were G0F, G1F, and G2F, respectively. Dissociation rate constants were derived from the chromatographic elution profiles by the peak profiling method, for the control and glucose stress conditions. The glucose stress conditions did not result in unfavorable binding kinetics of Rituximab and FcγRIIIA. The dissociation rate constants of the glycoform mixture 2, predominantly consisting of G1F, were similar to the dissociation rate constants obtained by surface plasmon resonance. Moreover, the glycosylation profiles obtained from chromatographic estimation can be corroborated with the ADCC activity. However, the ex vivo ADCC reporter assay indicated that there was an increase in the effector activity with increasing glucose stress. Thus, FcγRIIIA affinity chromatography permitted three independent assessments via a single analysis. Such approaches can be utilized as potential process analytical technology (PAT) tools in the biosimilar development process.

National Control Laboratory Assessment of Quality of Rituximab Biosimilars in India.

In past few years many rituximab (RTX) biosimilars have been launched in India. Biosimilars are products that are similar in terms of quality, safety, and efficacy to its innovator product and are expected to offer improved affordability. The less clinical examination is a significant source of reduction in the cost of development of a biosimilar. However, this clinical relief is predicated on the assumption that there is analytical similarity between the biosimilar and the innovator product. Therefore, the role of National Control Laboratory become very important to ensure the quality of these drugs by carrying out analytical characterization at the point of drug product release level as when referred by National Regulatory Authority for quality evaluation. To assess the similarity between innovator and biosimilars, different physicochemical and biological quality attributes were assessed. A multitude of state-of-the-art analysis of N = 3 RTX biosimilars marketed in India revealed that the impurity profiles of these biosimilars measured by charge variant analysis (cation exchange chromatography-high performance liquid chromatography [HPLC], capillary zone electrophoresis, and capillary isoelectric focusing), aggregates profiling (size exclusion chromatography-HPLC), fragments analysis (capillary electrophoresis-sodium dodecyl sulfate) were found to be significantly varying as compared with the innovator product. There were significant variations in acidic variants (p = 0.023) and basic variants (p = 0.0005), isoelectric point value (p < 0.0001), aggregates (p = 0.0231), and fragments (p < 0.0001) of biosimilars were found as that of innovator product. However, these differences were not affecting the biological activity in the cell-based potency analysis by complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) assay (p = 0.1026), antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) (p = 0.3736), and binding assay by flow cytometer fluorescence-activated cell sorting (p = 0.4005) of these biosimilars as compared with the innovator product.

Study of the Stability of Sandoz Rituximab Biosimilar Rixathon®/Riximyo® When Subjected for up to 21 Days to Ambient Storage.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extended physicochemical and biological stability of Sandoz Rixathon®/Riximyo® (SDZ-RTX) after exposure to out-of-fridge (OOF) conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The impact of the short-term temperature excursion on stability parameters of SDZ-RTX was simulated by subsequently exposing the three batches of SDZ-RTX (100 and 500 mg) to OOF conditions, (I) 25 ± 2 °C/60 ± 5% relative humidity (RH) and (II) 30 ± 2 °C/65 ± 5% RH, for up to 21 days after more than the claimed 36-month shelf-life storage in long-term conditions (5 ± 3 °C). Analytical methods used included the cation exchange chromatography (CEX), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and non-reducing capillary electrophoresis-sodium dodecyl sulfate (nrCE-SDS), as well as biological activity by complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC)-bioactivity as well as further methods, for example, related to identity and pharmacopoeia test methods. RESULTS: No notable changes were observed across all batches with respect to identity (charge and primary structure), pharmaceutical tests (clarity, visible and subvisible particles analytics, container appearance, degree of coloration, pH, osmolality, extractable volume, and container closure integrity testing), protein content by UV and microbiological parameters (sterility and bacterial endotoxins) under both OOF conditions. Only minor changes were observed for parameters evaluated via SEC, CEX, and nrCE-SDS. For potency (CDC-bioactivity) only one of the batches showed a relevant change. Even for these stability-indicating test methods, all analyzed parameters complied with the shelf-life specifications. CONCLUSION: SDZ-RTX is safe for use even under worst-case conditions, for example, after subjecting it for up to 21 days at OOF conditions (25 ± 2 °C/60 ± 5% RH or 30 ± 2 °C/65 ± 5% RH) after the batches had reached an age that was already beyond the claimed shelf-life.

Characterization of cisplatin-loaded chitosan nanoparticles and rituximab-linked surfaces as target-specific injectable nano-formulations for combating cancer.

The present study was carried out to develop cisplatin-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (CCNP) and cisplatin-loaded chitosan nanoparticle surface linked to rituximab (mAbCCNP) as targeted delivery formulations. The two formulations (CCNP and mAbCCNP) exhibited significant physicochemical properties. The zetapotential (ZP) values of CCNP and mAbCCNP were 30.50 ± 5.64 and 26.90 ± 9.09 mV, respectively; while their particle sizes were 308.10 ± 1.10 and 349.40 ± 3.20 z.d.nm, respectively. The poly dispersity index (PDI) of CCNP was 0.257 ± 0.030 (66.6% PDI), while that of mAbCCNP was 0.444 ± 0.007 (57.60% PDI). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that CCNP had endothermic peaks at temperatures ranging from 135.50 to 157.69 °C. A sharp exothermic peak was observed at 95.79 °C, and an endothermic peak was observed at 166.60 °C. The XRD study on CCNP and mAbCCNP revealed distinct peaks at 2θ. Four peaks at 35.38°, 37.47°, 49.29°, and 59.94° corresponded to CCNP, while three distinct peaks at 36.6°, 49.12°, and 55.08° corresponded to mAbCCNP. The in vitro release of cisplatin from nanoparticles followed zero order kinetics in both CCNP and mAbCCNP. The profile for CCNP showed 43.80% release of cisplatin in 6 h (R2 = 0.9322), indicating linearity of release with minimal deviation. However, the release profile of mAbCCNP showed 22.52% release in 4 h (R2 = 0.9416), indicating linearity with sustained release. In vitro cytotoxicity studies on MCF-7 ATCC human breast cancer cell line showed that CCNP exerted good cytotoxicity, with IC50 of 4.085 ± 0.065 µg/mL. However, mAbCCNP did not elicit any cytotoxic effect. At a dose of 4.00 µg/mL cisplatin induced early apoptosis and late apoptosis, chromatin condensation, while it produced secondary necrosis at a dose of 8.00 µg/mL. Potential delivery system for cisplatin CCNP and mAbCCNP were successfully formulated. The results indicated that CCNP was a more successful formulation than mAbCCNP due to lack of specificity of rituximab against MCF-7 ATCC human breast cancer cells.

Chemical Synthesis of Antibody-Hapten Conjugates Capable of Recruiting the Endogenous Antibody to Magnify the Fc Effector Immunity of Antibody for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with enhanced effector functions in cancer immunotherapy, such as complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), could improve the clinical performance. Here, we develop an mAb-hapten conjugate strategy to augment the mAb effector functions with the engagement of endogenous antibodies. An "off-the-shelf" mAb, rituximab, is site-specifically conjugated with the rhamnose (Rha) hapten to generate rituximab-Rha conjugates. The octopus-like conjugates could recruit anti-Rha antibodies onto the cancer cell surface and further form an immune complex that is able to provide multivalent Fc domains to interact with immune cells or complement protein C1q, leading to magnified ADCC and CDC simultaneously. One optimal conjugate R2 with PEG2 as a linker exhibits the most potent in vitro cancer cell killing activity and significant in vivo antitumor efficacy in a xenograft model. This is a general and cost-effective approach to generate mAb with improved effector functions that may have broad applications.

Effect of Fatty Acid Composition in Polysorbate 80 on the Stability of Therapeutic Protein Formulations.

PURPOSE: Polysorbate excipients are commonly used as surfactants to stabilize therapeutic proteins in formulations. Degradation of polysorbates could lead to particle formation and instability of the drug formulation. We investigated how the fatty acid composition of polysorbate 80 impacts the degradation profile, particle formation, and product stability under stress conditions. METHODS: Two polysorbate 80-containing therapeutic protein formulations were reformulated with either Polysorbate 80 NF synthesized from a fatty acid mixture that contains mainly oleic acid (≥58%) or a version of polysorbate 80 synthesized with high oleic acid (>98%). Stress conditions, including high temperature and esterase spiking, were applied and changes to both the polysorbate and the therapeutic protein product were investigated for stability, purity, innate immune response and biological activity. RESULTS: The addition of esterase and storage at 37°C led to significant hydrolysis of the polysorbate and increases in sub-visible particle formation for both polysorbates tested. The fatty acid composition of polysorbate 80 did not directly alter the stability profile of either therapeutic protein as measured by size exclusion chromatography, or significantly impact innate immune response or biological activity. However, formulations with Polysorbate 80 NF showed greater propensity for sub-visible particle formation under stress conditions. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that composition of fatty acids in polysorbate 80 may be a promoter for sub-visible particulate formation under the stress conditions tested but may not impact protein aggregation or biological activity.

Development of a multidimensional online method for the characterization and quantification of monoclonal antibodies using immobilized flow-through enzyme reactors.

Complete characterization and quantification of monoclonal antibodies often rely on enzymatic digestion with trypsin. In order to accelerate and automate this frequently performed sample preparation step, immobilized enzyme reactors (IMER) compatible with standard HPLC systems were used. This allows an automated online approach in all analytical laboratories. We were able to demonstrate that the required digestion time for the model monoclonal antibody rituximab could be reduced to 20 min. Nevertheless, a previous denaturation of the protein is required, which also needs 20 min. Recoveries were determined at various concentrations and were 100% ± 1% at 100 ng on column, 96% ± 7% at 250 ng on column and 98% ± 2% at 450 ng on column. Despite these good recoveries, complete digestion was not achieved, resulting in a poorer limit of quantification. This is 50 ng on column under optimized IMER conditions, whereas an offline digest on the same system achieved 0.3 ng on column. Furthermore, our work revealed that TRIS buffers, when used with an IMER system, led to alteration of the peptides and induced modifications in the peptides. Therefore, the addition of TRIS should be avoided when working at elevated temperatures of about 60 °C. Nevertheless, our results have shown that the recovery is not significantly influenced whether TRIS is used or not (recovery: 96 ± 7% with TRIS vs. 100 ± 9% without TRIS).

Preparation of an antigen-responsive fluorogenic immunosensor by tyrosine chemical modification of the antibody complementarity determining region.

Full-length pharmaceutical antibodies, trastuzumab and rituximab, were chemically modified into Quenchbody, a fluorescent immunosensor, using a two-step reaction: (1) selective tyrosine residue modification of antibody complementarity determining regions (CDRs), and (2) introduction of fluorescent dye molecules by Cu-free click reaction. Without the need for genetic manipulation and time-consuming examination of protein expression conditions, the antibody-dye combination with good antigen response efficiency was examined in a simple two-hour operation.

Simultaneous Monitoring of Monoclonal Antibody Variants by Strong Cation-Exchange Chromatography Hyphenated to Mass Spectrometry to Assess Quality Attributes of Rituximab-Based Biotherapeutics.

Different manufacturing processes and storage conditions of biotherapeutics can lead to a significant variability in drug products arising from chemical and enzymatic post-translational modifications (PTMs), resulting in the co-existence of a plethora of proteoforms with different physicochemical properties. To unravel the heterogeneity of these proteoforms, novel approaches employing strong cation-exchange (SCX) high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) hyphenated to mass spectrometry (MS) using a pH gradient of volatile salts have been developed in recent years. Here, we apply an established SCX-HPLC-MS method to characterize and compare two rituximab-based biotherapeutics, the originator MabThera® and its Indian copy product Reditux™. The study assessed molecular differences between the two drug products in terms of C-terminal lysine variants, glycosylation patterns, and other basic and acidic variants. Overall, MabThera® and Reditux™ displayed differences at the molecular level. MabThera® showed a higher degree of galactosylated and sialylated glycoforms, while Reditux™ showed increased levels of oligomannose and afucosylated glycoforms. Moreover, the two drug products showed differences in terms of basic variants such as C-terminal lysine and N-terminal truncation, present in Reditux™ but not in MabThera®. This study demonstrates the capability of this fast SCX-HPLC-MS approach to compare different drug products and simultaneously assess some of their quality attributes.

NMR Spectroscopy for Protein Higher Order Structure Similarity Assessment in Formulated Drug Products.

Peptide and protein drug molecules fold into higher order structures (HOS) in formulation and these folded structures are often critical for drug efficacy and safety. Generic or biosimilar drug products (DPs) need to show similar HOS to the reference product. The solution NMR spectroscopy is a non-invasive, chemically and structurally specific analytical method that is ideal for characterizing protein therapeutics in formulation. However, only limited NMR studies have been performed directly on marketed DPs and questions remain on how to quantitively define similarity. Here, NMR spectra were collected on marketed peptide and protein DPs, including calcitonin-salmon, liraglutide, teriparatide, exenatide, insulin glargine and rituximab. The 1D 1H spectral pattern readily revealed protein HOS heterogeneity, exchange and oligomerization in the different formulations. Principal component analysis (PCA) applied to two rituximab DPs showed consistent results with the previously demonstrated similarity metrics of Mahalanobis distance (DM) of 3.3. The 2D 1H-13C HSQC spectral comparison of insulin glargine DPs provided similarity metrics for chemical shift difference (Δδ) and methyl peak profile, i.e., 4 ppb for 1H, 15 ppb for 13C and 98% peaks with equivalent peak height. Finally, 2D 1H-15N sofast HMQC was demonstrated as a sensitive method for comparison of small protein HOS. The application of NMR procedures and chemometric analysis on therapeutic proteins offer quantitative similarity assessments of DPs with practically achievable similarity metrics.

Complementary Structural Information for Stressed Antibodies from Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange and Covalent Labeling Mass Spectrometry.

Identifying changes in the higher-order structure (HOS) of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies upon storage, stress, or mishandling is important for ensuring efficacy and avoiding adverse effects. Here, we demonstrate diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC)-based covalent labeling (CL) mass spectrometry (MS) and hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX)/MS can be used together to provide site-specific information about subtle conformational changes that are undetectable by traditional techniques. Using heat-stressed rituximab as a model protein, we demonstrate that CL/MS is more sensitive than HDX/MS to subtle HOS structural changes under low stress conditions (e.g., 45 and 55 °C for 4 h). At higher heat stress (65 °C for 4 h), we find CL/MS and HDX/MS provide complementary information, as CL/MS reports on changes in side chain orientation while HDX/MS reveals changes in backbone dynamics. More interestingly, we demonstrate that the two techniques work synergistically to identify likely aggregation sites in the heat-stressed protein. In particular, the CH3 and CL domains experience decreases in deuterium uptake after heat stress, while only the CH3 domain experiences decreases in DEPC labeling extent as well, suggesting the CH3 domain is a likely site of aggregation and the CL domain only undergoes a decrease in backbone dynamics. The combination of DEPC-CL/MS and HDX/MS provides valuable structural information, and the two techniques should be employed together when investigating the HOS of protein therapeutics.

Nanoencapsulated rituximab mediates superior cellular immunity against metastatic B-cell lymphoma in a complement competent humanized mouse model.

BACKGROUND: Despite the numerous applications of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in cancer therapeutics, animal models available to test the therapeutic efficacy of new mAbs are limited. NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rg tm1Wjl /SzJ (NSG) mice are one of the most highly immunodeficient strains and are universally used as a model for testing cancer-targeting mAbs. However, this strain lacks several factors necessary to fully support antibody-mediated effector functions-including antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis, and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC)-due to the absence of immune cells as well as a mutation in the Hc gene, which is needed for a functional complement system. METHODS: We have developed a humanized mouse model using a novel NSG strain, NOD.Cg-Hc1Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ (NSG-Hc1), which contains the corrected mutation in the Hc gene to support CDC in addition to other mechanisms endowed by humanization. With this model, we reevaluated the anticancer efficacies of nanoencapsulated rituximab after xenograft of the human Burkitt lymphoma cell line 2F7-BR44. RESULTS: As expected, xenografted humanized NSG-Hc1 mice supported superior lymphoma clearance of native rituximab compared with the parental NSG strain. Nanoencapsulated rituximab with CXCL13 conjugation as a targeting ligand for lymphomas further enhanced antilymphoma activity in NSG-Hc1 mice and, more importantly, mediated antilymphoma cellular responses. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that NSG-Hc1 mice can serve as a feasible model for both studying antitumor treatment using cancer targeting as well as understanding induction mechanisms of antitumor cellular immune response.

Budget Impact Analysis of the Introduction of Rituximab and Trastuzumab Intravenous Biosimilars to EU-5 Markets.

BACKGROUND: Biologic treatments impose a large financial burden on healthcare payers. Subcutaneous formulations of trastuzumab and rituximab offer administration cost savings relative to the intravenous products through reduced preparation and infusion times. However, intravenous biosimilars have the potential to offset administration costs through lower drug costs. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to develop a budget impact model (BIM) from a payer's perspective for the EU-5 countries (UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy) to demonstrate the economic impact of using intravenous trastuzumab and rituximab biosimilars. METHODS: An incidence-based BIM was developed to estimate the net budget impact utilising epidemiology data from the literature, market research data on the use of relevant treatments in all approved indications, and corresponding costs. The budget impact was estimated for 5 years following introduction of the biosimilars. RESULTS: Analysis using the base-case results indicated that adoption of the biosimilars trastuzumab and rituximab would result in net cost savings. At year 5, the net budget saving ranged from €4.05 million to 303.86 million for rituximab and from €19 million to 172 million for trastuzumab. The cost saving could potentially extend treatment to 291-15,671 more patients with rituximab and 622-3688 more patients with trastuzumab. CONCLUSION: This budget impact analysis emphasised that increased use of intravenous rituximab and trastuzumab biosimilars may result in cost savings from the payer's perspective across the EU-5 countries.

Co-delivery of rituximab targeted curcumin and imatinib nanostructured lipid carriers in non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells.

The aim of the present study was production of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) of curcumin and imatinib for co-administration in non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells. NLCs were prepared and conjugated to rituximab to target CD20 receptors of lymphoma cell lines. Oleic acid or Labrafac and glyceryl monostearate or lecithin were used for production of NLCs. The antibody coupling efficiency to NLCs and their physical characteristics were studied. The cytotoxicity of NLCs on Jurkat T cells (CD20 receptor negative) and Ramos B cells (CD20 receptor positive) was studied by MTT assay. The cellular uptake was determined by fluorescent microscopy. The results indicated both curcumin and imatinib targeted NLCs had a significant cytotoxic effect much higher than the free drugs and non-targeted NLCs on Ramos cells. In both cell lines, the cytotoxicity of the co-administrated drugs was significantly higher than each drug alone. In Ramos cells the co-administration of curcumin (15 µg/ml)/imatinib (5 µg/ml) decreased the free curcumin IC50 from 8.3 ± 0.9 to 1.9 ± 0.2 µg/ml, and curcumin targeted NLCs from 6.7 ± 0.1 to 1.3 ± 0.2 µg/ml. In this case the IC50 of imatinib was reduced from 11.1 ± 0.7 to 2.3 ± 0.1 µg/ml and imatinib targeted NLCs from 4.3 ± 0.1 to 1.4 ± 0.0 µg/ml. The co-administration of ritoximab conjugated NLCs of curcumin and imatinib may enhance cytotoxicity of imatinib in treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Preparation and In Vitro Evaluation of RITUXfab-Decorated Lipoplexes to Improve Delivery of siRNA Targeting C1858T PTPN22 Variant in B Lymphocytes.

Autoimmune endocrine disorders, such as type 1 diabetes (T1D) and thyroiditis, at present are treated with only hormone replacement therapy. This emphasizes the need to identify personalized effective immunotherapeutic strategies targeting T and B lymphocytes. Among the genetic variants associated with several autoimmune disorders, the C1858T polymorphism of the protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 22 (PTPN22) gene, encoding for Lyp variant R620W, affects the innate and adaptive immunity. We previously exploited a novel personalized immunotherapeutic approach based on siRNA delivered by liposomes (lipoplexes) that selectively inhibit variant allele expression. In this manuscript, we improved lipoplexes carrying siRNA for variant C1858T by functionalizing them with Fab of Rituximab antibody (RituxFab-Lipoplex) to specifically target B lymphocytes in autoimmune conditions, such as T1D. RituxFab-Lipoplexes specifically bind to B lymphocytes of the human Raji cell line and of human PBMC of healthy donors. RituxFab-Lipoplexes have impact on the function of B lymphocytes of T1D patients upon CpG stimulation showing a higher inhibitory effect on total cell proliferation and IgM+ plasma cell differentiation than the not functionalized ones. These results might open new pathways of applicability of RituxFab-Lipoplexes, such as personalized immunotherapy, to other autoimmune disorders, where B lymphocytes are the prevalent pathogenic immunocytes.

Sedimentation Velocity Analytical Ultracentrifugation Analysis of Marketed Rituximab Drug Product Size Distribution.

PURPOSE: Analytical methods suitable for intact drug products are often necessary to evaluate the equivalence in physicochemical properties between two drug products (DP) containing the same drug substance (DS), e.g., an innovator biologic drug and its proposed biosimilar. Analytical Ultracentrifugation (AUC) is a biophysics technique applied to the analysis of size and shape of biomolecules. However, the application of AUC to formulated monoclonal antibody (mAb) DP at high concentration has not been reported. METHODS: A sedimentation velocity (SV) AUC procedure with a short-pathlength centerpiece was applied to two marketed rituximab DPs, Rituxan® (US) and Reditux® (India), without any buffer exchange or dilution. Detailed precision analysis was performed. RESULTS: Highly reproducible sedimentation coefficient values (S) and peak areas were obtained for the dominant (> 84%) monomeric rituximab peak. The minor mAb fragment peaks had large variation in both S values and peak areas (3-12%). The identification of oligomer peaks was only reproducible once the abundance was higher than 2%. CONCLUSIONS: SV-AUC provides an orthogonal characterization tool for protein size distribution, composition and assay, which could be informative for biosimilar drug developers who mostly only have access to formulated mAb. However, AUC needs thorough validation on its accuracy, precision and sensitivity.

Analytical comparability study of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies rituximab and obinutuzumab using a stability-indicating orthogonal testing protocol: Effect of structural optimization and glycoengineering.

Glycoengineering and biosimilarity are the key factors for growing, promising and progressive approaches in monoclonal antibodies development. In this study, the physicochemical stability of anti-CD20 rituximab (RTX); originator and biosimilar was compared to its glycoengineered humanized version; obinutuzumab (OBZ). An orthogonal stability-indicating protocol using a set of validated bioanalytical techniques; size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC), reversed phase liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), quantitative gel electrophoresis by TapeStation, receptor binding assay and dynamic light scattering (DLS) was used to investigate the effect of different stress factors on the pattern and kinetics of degradation. SE-HPLC results supported with spectral purity showed similar degradation extent with a different pattern of degradation between RTX and OBZ. A lower tendency to form degraded fragments and a relatively higher favorability for degradation through aggregate formation has been revealed in case of OBZ. Results were in agreement with those of DLS and receptor binding assay which showed specificity to the intact antibodies in the presence of their degradation products. Furthermore, results were additionally confirmed through denaturing quantitative gel electrophoresis which suggested reducible covalent bonds as the mechanism for aggregates formation. RP-HPLC results showed two oxidized forms via excessive oxidation of RTX and OBZ with nearly the same degradation percent. Comparability data of RTX and OBZ using the applied methodologies showed that although glycoengineering; carried out to enhance the therapeutic and biological activity of OBZ altered the pattern of degradation but did not significantly affect the overall stability. Results showed also consistent stability profile between the biosimilar and its originator RTX products.

Analytical and functional similarity of biosimilar ABP 798 with rituximab reference product.

ABP 798 is a biosimilar candidate to rituximab reference product (RP). This comprehensive analytical similarity assessment was designed to assess the structural and functional similarity of ABP 798, rituximab (US), and rituximab (EU) using sensitive state-of-the-art analytical techniques capable of detecting small differences in product attributes. The similarity assessment was performed to evaluate product quality attributes associated with Fab, Fab/Fc, and Fc domains, including those known to affect the mechanisms of action. ABP 798 has the same amino acid sequence and exhibits similar secondary and tertiary structures, similar glycan and post-translational modification profiles, and biological activities as rituximab RP. There are minor differences in biochemical attributes, which are not considered clinically meaningful. The results of the analytical and functional similarity assessment demonstrate that ABP 798 is highly analytically similar to rituximab RP. These results support the totality of evidence and the scientific justification for extrapolation of ABP 798 to all therapeutic indications approved for rituximab.