Design of experiments for micellar electrokinetic chromatography method development for the monitoring of water-soluble vitamins in cell culture medium.

Biopharmaceutical production takes place in complex processes which should be thoroughly understood. Therefore, the iConsensus project focuses on developing a monitoring platform integrating several process analytical technology tools for integrated, automated monitoring of the biopharmaceutical process. Water-soluble vitamin monitoring using (microchip) capillary electrophoresis (CE) is part of this platform. This work comprises the development of conventional CE methods as the first part towards integrated vitamin monitoring. The vitamins were divided based on their physical-chemical properties to develop two robust methods. Previously, a method for the analysis of cationic vitamins (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, pyridoxamine, thiamine and nicotinamide) in cell culture medium was developed. This work focused on the development of a micellar electrokinetic chromatography method for anionic and neutral vitamins (riboflavin, d-calcium pantothenate, biotin, folic acid, cyanocobalamin and ascorbic acid). By employing multivariate design of experiments, the background electrolyte (BGE) could be optimised within one experiment testing only 11 BGEs. The optimised BGE conditions were 200 mM borate with 77 mM sodium dodecyl sulphate at a pH of 8.6. Using this BGE, all above-mentioned cationic, anionic and neutral vitamins could be separated in clean samples. In cell culture medium, most anionic and neutral vitamins could be separated. Combining the two methods allows for analysis of cationic, anionic and neutral vitamins in cell culture medium samples. The next step towards integrated vitamin monitoring includes transfer to microchip CE. Due to the lack of fast and reliable methods for vitamin monitoring, the developed capillary methods could be valuable as stand-alone at-line process analytical technology solutions as well.

Method development for quantitative monitoring of monoclonal antibodies in upstream cell-culture process samples with limited sample preparation - An evaluation of various capillary coatings.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become an important class of biopharmaceuticals used for the treatment of various diseases. Their quantification during the manufacturing process is important. In this work, a capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method was developed for the monitoring of the mAb concentration during cell-culture processes. CZE method development rules are outlined, particularly discussing various capillary coatings, such as a neutral covalent polyvinyl alcohol coating, a dynamic successive multiple ionic-polymer coating, and dynamic coatings using background electrolyte additives such as triethanolamine (T-EthA) and triethylamine. The dynamic T-EthA coating resulted in most stable electro-osmotic flows and most efficient peak shapes. The method is validated over the range 0.1-10 mg/ml, with a linear range of 0.08-1.3 mg/ml and an extended range of 1-10 mg/ml by diluting samples in the latter concentration range 10-fold in water. The intraday precision and accuracy were 2%-12% and 88%-107%, respectively, and inter-day precision and accuracy were 4%-9% and 93%-104%, respectively. The precision and accuracy of the lowest concentration level (0.08 mg/ml) were slightly worse and still well in scope for monitoring purposes. The presented method proved applicable for analysing in-process cell-culture samples from different cell-culture processes and is possibly well suited as platform method.

Analysis of Cationic Vitamins in Cell Culture Medium Samples by Capillary Zone Electrophoresis.

This paper describes a capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of the cationic B-vitamins thiamine, nicotinamide, pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine in untreated cell culture medium samples. The effects of the buffering capacity, the mobility of the coion, and the preconditioning solution on the robustness of the method were investigated. Using a 100 mM phosphoric acid and 55 mM triethanolamine background electrolyte at pH 2.3 and capillary preconditioning with 1 M NaOH, all five vitamins could be separated with good resolution. Preliminary method validation data over the range 10-110 µM for undiluted samples, with 10 µM being the lower range limit of quantification QL, showed accuracy recoveries of 94-104%, and migration time and peak area repeatabilities within 0.4% RSD and 2.6% RSD, respectively.

Protein mapping of peanut extract with capillary electrophoresis.

Protein separation can be achieved with different modes of capillary electrophoresis, such as with capillary gel electroporesis (CGE) or with capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). CZE protein mapping of peanut extract was approached in four different ways, combining neutral-coated or multilayer-coated capillaries with pHs well over or under the isoelectric point range of the proteins of interest. At acidic pHs, the mobility ranges of the major peanut allergens Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3, and Ara h6 were identified. Although the pH is a major factor in CZE separation, buffers with different compositions but with the same pH and ionic strength showed significantly different resolutions. Different components of the electrolyte were studied in a multifactorial design of experiment. CE-SDS and CZE proved to be suitable for protein mapping and we were able to distinguish different batches of peanut extract and burned peanut extract.

Method development for mono- and disaccharides monitoring in cell culture medium by capillary and microchip electrophoresis.

The rapidly growing, competitive biopharmaceutical market requires tight bioprocess monitoring. An integrated, automated platform for the routine online/at-line monitoring of key factors in the cell culture medium could greatly improve process monitoring. Mono- and disaccharides, as the main energy and carbon source, are one of these key factors. A CE-LIF method was developed for the analysis of several mono- and disaccharides, considering requirements and restrictions for analysis in an integrated, automated monitoring platform, such as the possibility for miniaturization to microchip electrophoresis. Analysis was performed after fluorescent derivatization with 8-aminopyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid. The derivatisation reaction and the separation BGE were optimized using design of experiments. The developed method is applicable to the complex matrix of cell culture medium and proved transferable to microchip electrophoresis.

Four-step approach to efficiently develop capillary gel electrophoresis methods for viral vaccine protein analysis.

Vaccines against infectious diseases are urgently needed. Therefore, modern analytical method development should be as efficient as possible to speed up vaccine development. The objectives of the study were to identify critical method parameters (CMPs) and to establish a set of steps to efficiently develop and validate a CE-SDS method for vaccine protein analysis based on a commercially available gel buffer. The CMPs were obtained from reviewing the literature and testing the effects of gel buffer dilution. A four-step approach, including two multivariate DoE (design of experiments) steps, was proposed, based on CMPs and was verified by CE-SDS method development for: (i) the determination of influenza group 1 mini-hemagglutinin glycoprotein; and (ii) the determination of polio virus particle proteins from an inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). The CMPs for sample preparation were incubation temperature(s) and time(s), pH, and reagent(s) concentration(s), and the detection wavelength. The effects of gel buffer dilution revealed the CMPs for CE-SDS separation to be the effective length, the gel buffer concentration, and the capillary temperature. The four-step approach based on the CMPs was efficient for the development of the two CE methods. A four-step approach to efficiently develop capillary gel electrophoresis methods for viral vaccine protein analysis was successfully established.

CE-SDS method development, validation, and best practice-An overview.

CE-SDS has been implemented in the biopharmaceutical industry and is being used for the characterization of therapeutic proteins in most Biological License Applications currently submitted. An overview is presented on the separation mechanism, methodology, and good working practices/best practices. The CE-SDS platform method development and validation are discussed and typical scientifically and regulatory issues and troubleshooting situations are highlighted.

Implementation of at-line capillary zone electrophoresis for fast and reliable determination of adenovirus concentrations in vaccine manufacturing.

A CZE method was validated and implemented for fast and accurate in-process determination of adenovirus concentrations of downstream process samples obtained during manufacturing of adenovirus vector-based vaccines. An analytical-quality-by-design approach was embraced for method development, method implementation, and method maintenance. CZE provided separation of adenovirus particles from sample matrix components, such as cell debris, residual DNA and proteins. The intermediate precision of the virus particle concentration was 6.9% RSD and the relative bias was 2.3%. In comparison, the CZE method is intended to replace a quantitative polymerase chain reaction method which requires three replicates in three analytical runs to achieve an intermediate precision of 8.1% RSD. Given that, in addition, the time from sampling till reporting results of the CZE method was less than 2 h, whereas quantitative polymerase chain reaction requires 3 days, it follows that the CZE method enables faster processing times in downstream processing.

Fast, selective and quantitative protein profiling of adenovirus-vector based vaccines by ultra-performance liquid chromatography.

A method for the quantitative determination of the protein composition of adenovirus-vector based vaccines was developed. The final method used RP-UPLC with UV absorbance detection, a C4 column (300 Å, 1.7 µm, 2.1 × 150 mm), and a water- acetonitrile (ACN) gradient containing trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as ion-pairing agent. The chromatographic resolution between the various adenovirus proteins was optimized by studying the effect of the TFA concentration and the column temperature, applying a full factorial design of experiments. A reproducible baseline separation of all relevant adenovirus proteins could be achieved within 17 min run time. Samples containing adenovirus particles could be directly injected into the UPLC system without sample pretreatment. The viruses reproducibly dissociate into proteins in the UPLC system upon contact with the mobile phase containing ACN. The new RP-UPLC method was successfully validated for protein profiling and relative quantification of proteins in vaccine products based on adenovirus vector types 26 and 35. The intermediate precision of the relative peak areas of all proteins was between 1% and 14% RSD, except for the peak assigned to protein V (26% RSD). The method proved to be stability indicating with respect to thermal and oxidation stress of the adenovirus-vector based vaccine and was successfully implemented for the characterization of adenovirus-based products.

Development of a capillary zone electrophoresis method to quantify E. colil-asparaginase and its acidic variants.

A capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method with UV detection was developed for the quantification of the E.colil-asparaginase (l-ASNase) and its acidic variants. During the initial method development, a variety of experimental conditions were screened. Subsequently, a Design of Experiments (DoE) was used to optimize the pH and concentration of the selected background electrolyte (BGE) containing both TRIS and boric acid. Optimization was performed taking into account both the separation efficiency of l-ASNase and its acidic variants as well as overall method robustness. A repeatable separation between E.colil-ASNase and its acidic variants was achieved on a bare fused silica capillary in combination with a BGE consisting of both 400 mM TRIS and boric acid. The method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, LOD, LOQ and robustness. The recovery for l-ASNase was 97.9-104.4% with a precision RSD of 1.5-3.2%, while the recovery of impurities was 92.1-109.8% with a RSD of 1.7-4.6%. The quantification limit was 1.9% (m/m). Moreover, the CZE-UV method was applied to determine the degradation rate in the presence of ammonium bicarbonate, confirming the suitability of the method. The degraded, partially charged l-ASNase was evaluated for its in-vitro enzymatic activity showing an insignificant different enzyme activity compared to the unmodified sample.

One single, fast and robust capillary electrophoresis method for the direct quantification of intact adenovirus particles in upstream and downstream processing samples.

During development of adenovirus-based vaccines, samples have to be analyzed in order to either monitor the production process or control the quality and safety of the product. An important quality attribute is the total concentration of intact adenoviruses, which currently is determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) or anion exchange-HPLC. Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) was evaluated as alternative to the current methods with the aim to have one single method that allows reliable and fast quantification of adenovirus particles throughout the full process. Intact adenoviruses samples from downstream processing and upstream processing were analyzed directly by CE with UV-detection at 214nm. Only the samples with high amounts of DNA required a simple sample pretreatment by benzonase. Adenovirus particles were separated from matrix components such as cell debris, residual cell DNA, and/or proteins on a PVA-coated capillary using a BGE consisting of 125mM Tris, 338mM tricine and 0.2% v/v polysorbate-20 at pH 7.7. Full factorial design of experiments was used for method optimization as part of the analytical quality by design (AQbD) method development approach. The method was validated for the quantification of adenoviruses on five representative samples from the manufacturing process in the range of 0.5×1011-1.5×1011 adenovirus particles per ml (~80 to 250pmol/l). The CE method showed intermediate precision of 7.8% RSD on concentration and an accuracy (spiked recovery) of 95-110%. CE proved highly useful for process development support and is being implemented for in-process control testing for adenovirus vaccine manufacturing.

New capillary gel electrophoresis method for fast and accurate identification and quantification of multiple viral proteins in influenza vaccines.

Current methods for the identification and/or quantification of viral proteins in influenza virus and virosome samples suffer from long analysis times, limited protein coverage and/or low accuracy and precision. We studied and optimized capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) in order to achieve faster and enhanced characterization and quantification of viral proteins. Sample preparation as well the composition of the gel buffer was investigated in order to achieve adequate protein separation in relatively short times. The total sample preparation (reduction and deglycosylation) could be carried out efficiently within two hours. Hydrodynamic injection, separation voltage, and capillary temperature were optimized in full factorial design. The final method was validated and showed good performance for hemagglutinin fragment 1 (HA1), hemagglutinin fragment 2 (HA2), matrix protein (M) and nucleoprotein (NP). The CGE method allowed identification of different virus strains based on their specific protein profile. B/Brisbane inactivated virus and virosome samples could be analyzed within one day. The CGE results (titers) were comparable to single radial immune-diffusion (SRID), but the method has the advantage of a much faster time to results. CGE analysis of A/Christchurch from upstream process demonstrated the applicability of the method to samples of high complexity. The CGE method could be used in the same analyte concentration range as the RP-HPLC method, but showed better precision and accuracy. Overall, the total analysis time for the CGE method was much shorter, allowing analysis of 100 samples in 4 days instead of 10 days for SRID.

Method development for the enantiomeric purity determination of low concentrations of adrenaline in local anaesthetic solutions by capillary electrophoresis.

L-adrenaline is often included in local anaesthetic (LA) solutions for injection to improve the quality of the anaesthetic block. The concentration of the LA is between 2.5 and 20 mg/ml and the concentration of adrenaline is typically < or = 0.1% of the LA concentration. In order to follow the racemization into d-adrenaline, not only is chiral separation needed but also sufficient resolution from the LA and other components of the injection solution. Furthermore, very high sensitivity is needed in order to be able to determine the d-enantiomer at very low concentrations, i.e. down to about 0.1 microg/ml. The development of a chiral capillary electrophoresis method that is able to determine the racemization of adrenaline is described, together with a limited validation. Samples are injected without pretreatment and analysed with a capillary electrophoresis buffer containing 40 mM heptakis(2,6-di-O-methyl)-beta-cyclodextrin, 0.10 M phosphoric acid and 0.05 M triethanolamine. The amounts of d-adrenaline found in the LA products tested were typically < 3% of the l-adrenaline concentration and < 0.003% of the LA concentration.

Development and validation of a robust capillary electrophoresis method for impurity profiling of calcium levofolinate including the (6R,2'S)-diastereomer using statistical experimental design.

A chiral capillary electrophoresis assay for the simultaneous determination of the optical purity and of related substances of calcium levofolinate has been developed and validated. Using 2,6-dimethyl-beta-cyclodextrin as chiral selector at a concentration of 20 mg/mL, the method was optimized using a full factorial design with four factors including pH and concentration of the background electrolyte, column temperature and separation voltage. Optimized conditions were a 40 mM sodium tetraborate buffer, pH 9.9, a capillary temperature of 16 degrees C, and an applied voltage of 21 kV. Methotrexate was used as internal standard to compensate for injection errors and fluctuations of the migration times. A multiple linear regression model was also used to test the robustness of the method. Validation was performed with respect to specificity, linearity, range, limit of quantification and detection, precision, and accuracy. The assay allowed the detection and determination of related substances including the diastereomeric (6R,2'S)-impurity of levofolinic acid at the 0.1% level, the identification threshold of impurities for orally administered drugs for human use defined by the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines as well as the European Pharmacopoeia.

Microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography of drugs varying in charge and hydrophobicity: I. Impact of parameters on separation performance evaluated by multiple linear regression models.

The separation of anionic, cationic and neutral drugs in microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) was studied with a statistical experimental design. The concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS, surfactant), 1-butanol (co-surfactant) and borate buffer and the factors Brij 35 (surfactant), 2-propanol (organic solvent) and cassette temperature were varied simultaneously, while the parameters pH (9.2), the concentration of octane (oil, 0.8% w/w), the voltage (10 kV) and the dimension of the fused-silica capillary, were kept constant. Eight different model substances were chosen with different hydrophobicities. Two of the analytes were positively charged, two were negatively charged, and the remaining four were neutral or close to neutral at the pH explored. The importance of each parameter on the separation window, the plate height and the retention factor for each of the analytes was studied by means of multiple linear regression (MLR) models. A new response was evaluated for anions, the quotient between the effective mobility in the microemulsion and the effective mobility in the corresponding buffer. Factors affecting selectivity changes were also explored, and it was found that SDS and 2-propanol had the largest effect on selectivity.

Migration order of dipeptide and tripeptide enantiomers in the presence of single isomer and randomly sulfated cyclodextrins as a function of pH.

The present study was conducted in order to evaluate the cyclodextrin (CD)-mediated chiral separation of peptide enantiomers as uncharged analytes at pH 5.3 using randomly sulfated beta-cyclodextrin, heptakis-6-sulfato-beta-CD and heptakis-(2,3-diacetyl-6-sulfato)-beta-CD as chiral selectors. Although less effective compared to stronger acidic conditions, the CDs proved to be suitable chiral selectors for the present set of peptides at pH 5.3. The carrier ability of the negatively charged CDs upon reversal of the applied voltage may also be exploited leading to a reversal of the migration order. In addition, reversal of the enantiomer migration order upon increasing the buffer pH from 2.5 to 5.3 was also observed for Ala-Tyr in the presence of randomly sulfated beta-CD, for Ala-Phe, Ala-Tyr, Phe-Phe, Asp-PheNH(2) and Gly-Ala-Phe in the presence of heptakis-6-sulfato-beta-CD, and for Phe-Phe and Ala-Leu in the presence of heptakis-(2,3-diacetyl-6-sulfato)-beta-CD. The migration behavior could be explained on the basis of the complexation constants and the mobilities of the peptide-CD complexes. While a change in the affinity pattern of the CDs upon increasing the pH was observed for some peptides, complex mobility was the primary factor for other peptide-CD combinations affecting the enantiomer migration order at the two pH values studied.