Viral contamination in biologic manufacture and implications for emerging therapies.

Recombinant protein therapeutics, vaccines, and plasma products have a long record of safety. However, the use of cell culture to produce recombinant proteins is still susceptible to contamination with viruses. These contaminations cost millions of dollars to recover from, can lead to patients not receiving therapies, and are very rare, which makes learning from past events difficult. A consortium of biotech companies, together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has convened to collect data on these events. This industry-wide study provides insights into the most common viral contaminants, the source of those contaminants, the cell lines affected, corrective actions, as well as the impact of such events. These results have implications for the safe and effective production of not just current products, but also emerging cell and gene therapies which have shown much therapeutic promise.

Report of the 2019 NIST-FDA workshop on standards for next generation sequencing detection of viral adventitious agents in biologics and biomanufacturing.

Adventitious virus testing assures product safety by demonstrating the absence of viruses that could be unintentionally introduced during the manufacturing process. The capabilities of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for broad virus detection in biologics have been demonstrated by the detection of known and novel viruses that were previously missed using the recommended routine assays for adventitious agent testing. A meeting was co-organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on September 18-19, 2019 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, to facilitate standardization of NGS technologies for applications of adventitious virus testing in biologics. The goal was to assess the currently used standards for virus detection by NGS and their public availability, and to identify additional needs for different types of reference materials and standards (natural and synthetic). The meeting focused on the NGS processes from sample preparation through sequencing but did not thoroughly cover bioinformatics, since this was considered to be the topic of a separate meeting.

Quantification of human astroviruses in sewage using real-time RT-PCR.

Human astroviruses constitute a significant cause of acute diarrhea in children. Viral transmission occurs via the fecal-oral route, predominantly person-to-person, but the consumption of fecally contaminated water and shellfish has also been implicated. Viral pathogen detection in water, especially, in wastewater, is difficult and PCR is widely used to detect these viruses. Despite the recent development of real-time quantitative PCR, quantification of astroviruses in sewage had not been available up to now. We have developed a method to quantify astroviruses in sewage. For this purpose, we designed a set of primers and a fluorogenic probe located at the 3' -end of the genome of human astroviruses. The amplified region was cloned and the plasmid was transcribed to generate calibration standards for quantification. After validation of the standards, the method was evaluated in artificially contaminated samples. To validate the method on naturally contaminated samples, raw and treated wastewater samples were collected monthly for one year in a sewage treatment plant. Astrovirus genomes were detected in all samples collected at the entrance to the sewage treatment plant, with a mean value of 4.1 x 10(6) astrovirus genomes for 100 ml. Effluents were less strongly contaminated, with a mean value of 1.01 x 10(4) astrovirus genomes. The high prevalence of astroviruses in sewage treatment plant effluents indicates that these plants are not efficiently eliminating the virus. This is a major public health concern and new techniques of depuration are needed. Our method could be effectively used in evaluating new treatment processes to reduce the viral load in the effluent of treatment plants.

Genetic variability of hepatitis A virus in South America reveals heterogeneity and co-circulation during epidemic outbreaks.

Genetic analysis of selected genome regions of hepatitis A virus (HAV) suggested that distinct genotypes of HAV could be found in different geographical regions. In order to gain insight into the genetic variability and mode of evolution of HAV in South America, an analysis was performed of sequence data obtained from the VP1 amino terminus and the VP1/2A region of HAV strains isolated over a short period of time in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. Sequences obtained from 22 distinct HAV isolates were compared with published sequences from 21 different strains isolated all over the world. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all strains isolated belong to a unique sub-genotype (IA). Strains isolated during an outbreak period showed a higher degree of heterogeneity than anticipated previously and the co-circulation of different isolates. The genetic variability among strains isolated in this region seems to be higher in comparison with strains isolated in other regions of the world.