Accelerating patient access to novel biologics using stable pool-derived product for non-clinical studies and single clone-derived product for clinical studies.

Cell cloning and subsequent process development activities are on the critical path directly impacting the timeline for advancement of next generation therapies to patients with unmet medical needs. The use of stable cell pools for early stage material generation and process development activities is an enabling technology to reduce timelines. To successfully use stable pools during development, it is important that bioprocess performance and requisite product quality attributes be comparable to those observed from clonally derived cell lines. To better understand the relationship between pool and clone derived cell lines, we compared data across recent first in human (FIH) programs at Amgen including both mAb and Fc-fusion modalities. We compared expression and phenotypic stability, bioprocess performance, and product quality attributes between material derived from stable pools and clonally derived cells. Overall, our results indicated the feasibility of matching bioprocess performance and product quality attributes between stable pools and subsequently derived clones. These findings support the use of stable pools to accelerate the advancement of novel biologics to the clinic. © 2017 The Authors Biotechnology Progress published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:1476-1482, 2017.

Monoclonal antibody disulfide reduction during manufacturing: Untangling process effects from product effects.

Manufacturing-induced disulfide reduction has recently been reported for monoclonal human immunoglobulin gamma (IgG) antibodies, a widely used modality in the biopharmaceutical industry. This effect has been tied to components of the intracellular thioredoxin reduction system that are released upon cell breakage. Here, we describe the effect of process parameters and intrinsic molecule properties on the extent of reduction. Material taken from cell cultures at the end of production displayed large variations in the extent of antibody reduction between different products, including no reduction, when subjected to the same reduction-promoting harvest conditions. Additionally, in a reconstituted model in which process variables could be isolated from product properties, we found that antibody reduction was dependent on the cell line (clone) and cell culture process. A bench-scale model using a thioredoxin/thioredoxin reductase regeneration system revealed that reduction susceptibility depended on not only antibody class but also light chain type; the model further demonstrates that the trend in reducibility was identical to DTT reduction sensitivity following the order IgG1λ > IgG1κ > IgG2λ > IgG2κ. Thus, both product attributes and process parameters contribute to the extent of antibody reduction during production.

Targeted codon optimization improves translational fidelity for an Fc fusion protein.

High levels of translational errors, both truncation and misincorporation in an Fc-fusion protein were observed. Here, we demonstrate the impact of several commercially available codon optimization services, and compare to a targeted strategy. Using the targeted strategy, only codons known to have translational errors are modified. For an Fc-fusion protein expressed in Escherichia coli, the targeted strategy, in combination with appropriate fermentation conditions, virtually eliminated misincorporation (proteins produced with a wrong amino acid sequence), and reduced the level of truncation. The use of full optimization using commercially available strategies reduced the initial errors, but introduced different misincorporations. However, truncation was higher using the targeted strategy than for most of the full optimization strategies. This targeted approach, along with monitoring of translation fidelity and careful attention to fermentation conditions is key to minimizing translational error and ensuring high-quality expression. These findings should be useful for other biopharmaceutical products, as well as any other transgenic constructs where protein quality is important.

Analysis of human antibody IgG2 domains by reversed-phase liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.

It has been well documented that papain cleaves an IgG1 molecule to release Fab and Fc domains; however, papain was found unable to release such domains from an IgG2. Here we present a new combinatory strategy to analyze the heterogeneity of the light chain (LC), single chain Fc (sFc), and Fab portion of the heavy chain (Fd) of an IgG2 molecule released by papain cleavage under mild reducing conditions. These domains were well separated on reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and analyzed by in-line liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOF/MS). In addition, some modifications of these domains were revealed by in-line mass spectrometry, and confirmed by the peptide mapping on LC-MS/MS analysis. This same strategy was proven suitable for IgG1 molecules as well. This procedure provides a simplified approach for the characterization of antibody biomolecules by facilitating the detection of low-level modifications in a domain. In addition, the technique offers a new strategy as an identification assay to distinguish IgG2 molecules on RP-HPLC, by which highly conserved Fc domains remain at a constant retention time (RT) unique to its subisotype, while varying RTs of the light chain and the Fd distinguish the monoclonal antibody from other molecules of the same isotype based on the underlying characteristics of each antibody.

Transcriptional profile of the Escherichia coli response to the antimicrobial insect peptide cecropin A.

Cationic antimicrobial peptides are believed to exert their primary activities on anionic bacterial cell membranes; however, this model does not adequately account for several important structure-activity relationships. These relationships are likely to be influenced by the bacterial response to peptide challenge. In order to characterize the genomic aspect of this response, transcription profiles were examined for Escherichia coli isolates treated with sublethal and lethal concentrations of the cationic antimicrobial peptide cecropin A. Transcript levels for 26 genes changed significantly following treatment with sublethal peptide concentrations, and half of the transcripts corresponded to protein products with unknown function. The pattern of response is distinct from that following treatment with lethal concentrations and is also distinct from the bacterial response to nutritional, thermal, osmotic, or oxidative stress. These results demonstrate that cecropin A induces a genomic response in E. coli apart from any lethal effects on the membrane and suggest that a complete understanding of its mechanism of action may require a detailed examination of this response.