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.     

Interlaboratory method validation of capillary electrophoresis sodium dodecyl sulfate (CE-SDS) methodology for analysis of mAbs

Capillary electrophoresis sodium dodecyl sulfate (CE-SDS) is an analytical method to assess the purity of proteins, commonly applied to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in the biopharmaceutical industry. To address the need to standardize the CE-SDS method in the pharmaceutical industry and to enhance the confidence in method transfer between laboratories operating different commercial capillary electrophoresis (CE) instrument platforms, an interlaboratory CE-SDS method validation was organized involving 13 laboratories in 13 companies on four different types of commercial capillary electrophoresis instruments. In the validation, a commercial mAb therapeutic was used as the sample. The validation process followed the analytical guidelines set by the ICH guidelines (International Conference for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use). The method's precision, accuracy, linearity and range, and limit of quantitation (LOQ) were validated in the study. Variations of all the parameters validated in the study passed the pre-set criteria defined at the beginning of the study. The definition was based on previously published works and the intended application purpose of the CE-SDS method for mAbs. The study proved that the CE-SDS method fits its intended application purpose as a size impurity assay and size heterogeneity characterization assay for mAb therapeutic products. This study is the first time a CE-SDS method is validated by multiple laboratories using different commercial CE instrument platforms and on a commercial mAb therapeutic. Its results will enhance the confidence of the biopharmaceutical industry to develop CE-SDS methods and transfer CE-SDS methods between different laboratories.     

Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of Simon™, a new CE-based automated Western blot system as applied to vaccine development

Many CE-based technologies such as imaged capillary IEF, CE-SDS, CZE, and MEKC are well established for analyzing proteins, viruses, or other biomolecules such as polysaccharides. For example, imaged capillary isoelectric focusing (charge-based protein separation) and CE-SDS (size-based protein separation) are standard replacement methods in biopharmaceutical industries for tedious and labor intensive IEF and SDS-PAGE methods, respectively. Another important analytical tool for protein characterization is a Western blot, where after size-based separation in SDS-PAGE the proteins are transferred to a membrane and blotted with specific monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies. Western blotting analysis is applied in many areas such as biomarker research, therapeutic target identification, and vaccine development. Currently, the procedure is very manual, laborious, and time consuming. Here, we evaluate a new technology called Simple Western? (or Simon?) for performing automated Western analysis. This new technology is based on CE-SDS where the separated proteins are attached to the wall of capillary by a proprietary photo activated chemical crosslink. Subsequent blotting is done automatically by incubating and washing the capillary with primary and secondary antibodies conjugated with horseradish peroxidase and detected with chemiluminescence. Typically, Western blots are not quantitative, hence we also evaluated the quantitative aspect of this new technology. We demonstrate that Simon? can quantitate specific components in one of our vaccine candidates and it provides good reproducibility and intermediate precision with CV <10%.     

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.     

Determination of Triton X-100 in influenza vaccine by high-performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis

Triton X-100 is applied to influenza vaccines at different stages of the manufacturing process to prevent aggregation and precipitation of biomolecules. Furthermore it is used to disintegrate the virus particles in split vaccine and to guarantee the homogeneity during production and utilisation. The final concentration of Triton X-100 has to be determined because the concentration changes in manufacturing process. The determination of the total amount of Triton X-100 as well as the separation of its ethylene oxide oligomers was possible with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). In HPLC a change of the column and eluent was necessary, in CE different electrolytes were used for the various separation effects. The HPLC method for the analysis of total Triton was preferred for the quantification of Triton X-100 in influenza vaccine because of better linearity, reproducibility and detection sensitivity compared to CE. In the end products an average concentration of 0.117 mg/mL was found. Received: 19 December 1996 / Revised: 27 February 1997 / Accepted: 6 March 1997     

Optimization of CE-SDS Method for Antibody Separation Based on Multi-Users Experimental Practices

Capillary Electrophoresis-Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (CE-SDS) method with UV detection was developed and satisfactorily used for determination of purity and manufacturing consistency of a monoclonal antibody (MAb) at Amgen Inc. (Seattle, WA). When this method was applied to some other MAbs, several problems with method robustness became apparent. These issues resulted in abnormal Electropherogram (e-gram) profiles potentially linked to various parameters specific molecules analyzed, sample formulation buffer composition, CE-SDS gel matrix type, and operators. A multi-users interest group (called CE Users Forum) was formed to systematically investigate and understand these issues. The CE Users Forum first identified the issues which needed resolution, defined group experiments to better understand the problem and to test potential solutions, and together defined a generic (platform) CE-SDS method for MAbs. Two CE instruments, Agilent HP^3DCE and Beckman PA 800, two CE-SDS gel matrices, BioRad and Beckman gels, as well as different types of MAbs in various buffers were used in this investigation. We present here a platform CE-SDS method for purity determination of MAbs. Method optimization and trouble-shooting procedures by the CE Users Forum played a key role in delivering a robust analytical method for characterization of antibodies by improving instrumental and experimental parameters such as instrument variability, instrument operating parameters, operator training, and reagent stability. The optimized CE-SDS method is used during process development and has been transferred to the quality control (QC) lab as a purity assay for lot release testing of therapeutic antibodies. Any trained analyst can successfully perform this method. A group such as the CE Users Forum is a good way to integrate best practices and solve technical issues in a cooperative environment.Presented at: CE in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Industries: 7th Symposium on the Practical Applications for the Analysis of Proteins, Nucleotides and Small Molecules, Montreal, Canada, August 12–16, 2005     

A comparative study of CE-SDS,SDS-PAGE,and Simple Western—Precision,repeatability, and apparent molecular mass shifts by glycosylation

SDS gel electrophoresis is a commonly used approach for monitoring purity and apparent molecular mass (Mr) of proteins, especially in the field of quality control of biopharmaceutical proteins. The technological installation of CE-SDS as the replacement of the slab gel technique (SDS-PAGE) is still in progress, leading to a continuous improvement of CE-SDS instruments. Various CE-SDS instruments, namely Maurice (CE-SDS/CE-SDS PLUS) and Wes by ProteinSimple as well as the microchip gel electrophoresis system LabChip® GXII Touch™ HT by PerkinElmer were tested for precision and repeatability compared to SDS-PAGE (Bio-Rad). For assessing these quality control parameters, standard model proteins with minor post-translational modifications were used. Overall, it can be concluded that the CE-SDS-based methods are similar to SDS-PAGE with respect to these parameters. Quality characteristics of test systems gain more significance by testing proteins that do not behave like model proteins. Therefore, glycosylated proteins were analyzed to comparatively investigate the influence of glycosylation on Mr determination in the different instruments. In some cases, high deviations were found both among the methods and with regard to reference values. This article provides possible explanations for these findings.     

Separation and quantification of double‐ and triple‐layered rotavirus‐like particles by CZE

Virus‐like particles have been successfully used as safe vaccines, as their structure is identical to their native counterparts but devoid of the viral genetic material. However, production of these complex structures is not easy, as recombinant proteins must assemble into virus‐like particles. Techniques to differentiate assembled and soluble proteins, as well as assembly intermediaries often present in a sample, are required. An example of complex virus‐like particles mixture occurs when rotavirus proteins are recombinantly expressed. Rotavirus‐like particles (RLP) can be single (sl), double (dl), or triple layered (tl). The use of RLP preparations as vaccines requires their complete characterization, including separation and quantification of each RLP in a sample. In this work, CZE was evaluated for the separation and quantification of dl and triple‐layered rotavirus‐like particles (tlRLP). A fused‐silica capillary with a deoxycholate running buffer efficiently separated dl and tlRLP in RLP preparations, as they migrated in two discrete peaks with electrophoretic mobilities of 1.24±0.04 and 2.95±0.03 Ti, respectively. Standard curves for dl and tlRLP were generated, and the response was linearly proportional to analyte concentration. The methodology developed was quantitative, specific, accurate, precise, and reproducible. CZE allowed the quantitative characterization of RLP preparations, which is required for evaluation of immunogens, for process development, and for quality control protocols.     

Capillary electrophoresis of viruses, subviral particles and virus complexes

CZE and CIEF were so far applied to the analysis of tobacco mosaic virus, Semliki forest virus, human rhinovirus, adenovirus, norovirus and the bacteriophages T5 and MS2. The concentration of viral or subviral particles, of capsid proteins and viral genomes were determined, their electrophoretic mobilities and pI values were measured and bioaffinity reactions between viruses and antibodies, antibody fragments and receptor fragments were assessed. The role of detergents added to the BGE to obtain reproducible electrophoretic conditions was elucidated. The analytes were detected via their UV-absorbance or via fluorescence after derivatization of the viral capsid, the nucleic acid, or both. A new dimension to the detection is added by the possibility of making use of the viral infectivity. At least in theory, this allows for the unequivocal identification of a single infectious virus particle after collection at the capillary outlet. This review summarizes the 25 papers so far published on this topic.     

In‐capillary approach to eliminate SDS interferences in antibody analysis by capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry

Capillary electrophoresis is an important technique for the characterization of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), especially in the pharmaceutical context. However, identification is difficult as upscaling and hyphenation of used methods directly to mass spectrometry is often not possible due to separation medium components that are incompatible with MS detection. Here a CE‐MS method for the analysis of mAbs is presented analyzing SDS‐complexed samples. To obtain narrow and intensive peaks of SDS‐treated antibodies, an in‐capillary strategy was developed based on the co‐injection of positively charged surfactants and methanol as organic solvent. For samples containing 0.2% (v/v) of SDS, recovered MS peak intensities up to 97 and 95% were achieved using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide or benzalkonium chloride, respectively. Successful removal of SDS was shown in neutral coated capillaries but also in a capillary with a positively charged coating applying reversed polarity. The usefulness of this in‐capillary strategy was demonstrated also for other proteins and for antibodies dissolved in up to 10% v/v SDS solution, and in other SDS‐containing matrices, including the sieving matrix used in a standard CE‐SDS method and gel‐buffers applied in SDS‐PAGE methods. The developed CE‐MS approaches enable fast and reproducible characterization of SDS‐complexed antibodies.     

High-performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis for the analysis of maize proteins

Methods for the analysis of maize proteins using HPLC and CE are reviewed. Most of the references cited in this review concern HPLC methods. Size-exclusion HPLC and especially RP-HPLC methods have been developed for characterization of normal and genetically modified maize, cultivar differentiation, and prediction of quality. Few CE methods for the analysis of maize proteins were found in the existing literature. Most of these methods focus on optimization of the separation of maize proteins using CZE and SDS-capillary gel electrophoresis.     

Automated screening using microfluidic chip-based PCR and product detection to assess risk of BK virus-associated nephropathy in renal transplant recipients

The cost-effective detection of viral particles in bodily fluids could enable more effective responses to viral outbreaks, whether isolated clinical cases, or influenza epidemics. In renal transplant recipients, complications arising from high levels of BK virus can lead to graft dysfunction, graft loss, and/or reduced patient survival. We describe a microfluidic system for the sensitive analysis of BK virus (viral load) in unprocessed urine samples that are applied directly onto the chip, thus avoiding labor-intensive processing and sources of inter-assay variability. Integration of small volume genetic amplification (PCR) and electrophoretic analysis detects as few as 1-2 viral copies, distinguishes between high, medium and low levels of virus and reliably identifies viral loads requiring clinical intervention. As a first step to wider application in the clinic and in the field, the present work presents an entirely microchip-based system, validated against conventional clinical methods using clinical samples.     

N-glycan analysis by CGE-LIF: profiling influenza A virus hemagglutinin N-glycosylation during vaccine production

Glycoproteins, such as monoclonal antibodies as well as recombinant and viral proteins produced in mammalian cell culture play an important role in manufacturing of many biopharmaceuticals. To ensure consisting quality of the corresponding products, glycosylation profiles have to be tightly controlled, as glycosylation affects important properties of the corresponding proteins, including bioactivity and antigenicity. This study describes the establishment of a method for analyzing N-glycosylation patterns of mammalian cell culture-derived influenza A virus glycoproteins used in vaccine manufacturing. It comprises virus purification directly from cell culture supernatant, protein isolation, deglycosylation, and clean-up steps as well as "fingerprint" analysis of N-glycan pools by CGE-LIF, using a capillary DNA-sequencer. Reproducibility studies of CGE-LIF, virus purification, and sample preparation have been performed. For demonstrating its applicability, the method was exemplarily used for monitoring batch-to-batch reproducibility in vaccine production, with respect to the glycosylation pattern of the membrane protein hemagglutinin of influenza A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) virus. This method allows characterization of variations in protein glycosylation patterns, directly by N-glycan "fingerprint" alignment.     

Rapid separation and identification of the subtypes of swine and equine influenza A viruses by electromigration techniques with UV and fluorometric detection

Influenza A is viral disease, which is a cause of yearly epidemics and, potentially, pandemics. The conventional techniques used today are equipment-demanding, time-consuming and laborious. Recently, we have confirmed that the capillary isoelectric focusing is a suitable fast alternative for the verifying of virus purity. In the wide pH gradient of pH range 2.0-7.5 the isoelectric points for subtypes of equine (H3N8) and swine (H1N2) influenza A viruses were determined approximately as 6.6 and 6.5, respectively. In this contribution we have verified these findings using different isolates of different viral subtypes of swine influenza, H1N1, H1N2, and of equine influenza, H3N8, H7N7, which were separated by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) in the narrow pH gradient pH range from 6.0 to 7.0. It was found that the isoelectric points of different isolates and subtypes of equine and swine influenza are almost independent of their origin. The electromigration velocities of subtypes of equine or swine influenza viruses were dependent on the antigenic subtypes of their surface glycoproteins. The detection sensitivity of the influenza viruses labeled by the fluorescent non-ionogenic tenside based on poly(ethylene glycol)pyrenebutanoate for fluorometric detection was increased and down to ten labeled viruses were detected. The isoelectric points of the native and labeled equine and swine influenza A viruses and their subtypes do not differ. According to our experiments these methods appear to be useful for the fast preliminary differentiation of influenza viruses in future.     

Separation of stilbenes by capillary electrophoresis and high-performance liquid chromatography

Stilbenes, fluorescence whitening agents (FWAs), are usually added to cleaning agents in household and in industry. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) was often applied to separate various compounds simultaneously for its multinomial advantages. In this paper, we established analytical methods of six diaminostilbenes with CE and ion-pair chromatography (IPC). The optimum mobile phase for IPC was 11.78 mM tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate (TBA) aqueous and acetonitrile. An IPC method has been developed for simple and direct separation for diaminostilbenes, anionic substances, with TBA as ion-pair reagent. Satisfactory linear ranges (7.0 x 10(-3) approximately 3.0 x 10 microg/mL), correlation coefficients (0.9992-0.9999), and detection limits (6-13 ng/mL) were obtained. Separations were also performed by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) using a buffer consisting of Tris (pH 10.1), n-tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) and acetonitrile. A linear range of 5.0 x 10(-1) - 4.0 x 10 microg/mL, correlation coefficients between 0.9975 and 0.9998, and detection limits between 337 and 446 ng/mL were obtained. In particular, the separation of a pair of similar compounds (mass difference of 2) was achieved by addition of TTAB. The optimum analytical methods of CE and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were applied to commercial household with direct analysis and standard addition. No significant bias were shown between them by t-test at 95% confidence level.     

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.     

Determination of phenolic acids in plant extracts using CZE with on‐line transient isotachophoretic preconcentration

A novel transient ITP–CZE for preconcentration and determination of seven phenolic acids (caffeic acid, cinnamic acid, p‐coumaric acid, ferulic acid, protocatechuic acid, syringic acid, and vanilic acid) was developed and validated. Effects of several factors such as control of EOF, pH and buffer concentration, addition of organic solvents and CDs, and conditions for sample injection were investigated. Sample self‐stacking was applied by means of induction of transient ITP, which was realized by adding sodium chloride into the sample. The CZE was realized in 200 mM borate buffer ( 9.2) containing 37.5% methanol, 0.001% hexadimethrine bromide, and 15 mM 2‐hydroxypropyl‐β‐CD. Under the optimal conditions for analysis, analytes were separated within 20 min. Linearity was tested for each compound in the concentration range of 0.1–10 μg/mL (R = 0.9906–0.9968) and the detection limits (S/N = 3) ranged from 11 ng/mL (protocatechuic acid) to 31 μg/mL (syringic acid). The validated method was applied to the ethanolic extract of Epilobium parviflorum, Onagraceae. The method of SPE was used for the precleaning of the sample.     

Capillary electrophoresis for the characterization of the complex dendrimeric contrast agent Gadomer

A CE method for the characterization of the complex dendrimeric contrast agent Gadomer has been developed and validated. The method was capable of separating the target substance Gadomer 24 from related dendrimers containing amino or carboxyl functions and from impurities of lower molecular weight. The compounds were separated in a fused-silica capillary. The optimized BGE consisted of 15 mM sodium phosphate, pH 6.3, containing 0.5 mM hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide. The assay was validated with regard to linearity, specificity, accuracy, LOD and LOQ as well as robustness according to the guidelines of the International Conference on Harmonization. The method allows the determination of the purity and stability of the drug substance Gadomer as well as its injectable formulation. On the basis of the present study, a strategy for the quality assurance and quality control of the complex dendrimeric drug candidate Gadomer may be devised. The method may therefore serve as a key component in a set of analytical methodologies designed to assure and control the reproducible quality and safety of this innovative product. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work reporting a validated method for the characterization, impurity profiling, and stability testing of a dendrimeric agent designed for clinical use.     

The protective effects of a d-tetra-peptide hydrogel adjuvant vaccine against H7N9 influenza virus in mice

Repeated waves of influenza virus H7N9 epidemics after 2013 have caused severe influenza in humans, with mortality reaching approximately 40%–50%. To prevent possible pandemics, the development of highly effective vaccines against influenza virus H7N9 is highly desired. In the present study, by taking advantage of the d-tetra-peptide adjuvant (G^DF^DF^DY), we reported a simple method to prepare H7N9 vaccines. Naproxen (Npx), with good anti inflammatory and broad anti-viral effects, was employed as an N-terminal capping group to construct a hydrogel precursor, Npx-G^DF^DF^DY. The hydrogel adjuvant was prepared using a routine heating cooling protocol and the final vaccine was ready after mixing with the split A/Zhejiang/DTID-ZJU01/2013 (H7N9) antigen by vortexing. Compared with the traditional Al(OH)₃ adjuvant vaccine and the split vaccine, our hydrogel adjuvant vaccine showed the best preventive effects against H7N9 infection. A mechanistic study illustrated that higher antibody responses and variations in cytokine expression might account for its increased protective effects. Our strategy demonstrated the advantages of a peptide hydrogel adjuvant in the application of vaccines against H7N9 and demonstrated its potential application in vaccines against emerging threats from other viruses.     

Determination of ciprofloxacin and its impurities by capillary zone electrophoresis

Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) has been elaborated for separation, identification and determination of ciprofloxacin and its impurities. The separation, phosphate buffer pH 6.0 was supplemented with 0.075 M pentane-1-sulfonic acid sodium salt. The elaborated method was validated. The selectivity, linearity, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ), precision, and accuracy of capillary zone electrophoresis were evaluated. The results obtained by CZE were also compared with those obtained by liquid chromatography. Regarding the validation results the CE method fulfils the current European Pharmacopoeia (Eur. Ph.) requirements. The evaluated CE method could be applicable to the analysis of different medicinal products containing ciprofloxacin.