Modeling of complex antibody elution behavior under high protein load densities in ion exchange chromatography using an asymmetric activity coefficient.

A main requirement for the implementation of model-based process development in industry is the capability of the model to predict high protein load densities. The frequently used steric mass action isotherm assumes a thermodynamically ideal system and, hence constant activity coefficients. In this manuscript, an industrial antibody purification problem under high load conditions is considered where this assumption does not hold. The high protein load densities, as commonly applied in industrial downstream processing, may lead to complex elution peak shapes. Using Mollerup's generalized ion-exchange isotherm (GIEX), the observed elution peak shapes could be modeled. To this end, the GIEX isotherm introduced two additional parameters to approximate the asymmetric activity coefficient. The effects of these two parameters on the curvature of the adsorption isotherm and the resulting chromatogram are investigated. It could be shown that they can be determined by inverse peak fitting and conform with the mechanistic demands of model-based process development.

A versatile noninvasive method for adsorber quantification in batch and column chromatography based on the ionic capacity.

Within the Quality by Design (QbD) framework proposed by the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), high-throughput process development (HTPD) and mechanistic modeling are of outstanding importance for future biopharmaceutical chromatography process development. In order to compare the data derived from different column scales or batch chromatographies, the amount of adsorber has to be quantified with the same noninvasive method. Similarly, an important requirement for the implementation of mechanistic modeling is the reliable determination of column characteristics such as the ionic capacity Λ for ion-exchange chromatography with the same method at all scales and formats. We developed a method to determine the ionic capacity in column and batch chromatography, based on the adsorption/desorption of the natural, uv-detectable amino acid histidine. In column chromatography, this method produces results comparable to those of classical acid-base titration. In contrast to acid-base titration, this method can be adapted to robotic batch chromatographic experiments. We are able to convert the adsorber volumes in batch chromatography to the equivalent volume of a compressed column. In a case study, we demonstrate that this method increases the quality of SMA parameters fitted to batch adsorption isotherms, and the capability to predict column breakthrough experiments. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:666-677, 2016.