Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado 80045, USA.
J Pharm Sci. 2011 Feb;100(2):492-503. doi: 10.1002/jps.22305. Epub 2010 Aug 27.
The objective of this study was to evaluate microflow imaging (MFI) as a sensitive tool to detect and quantify subvisible particle formation during freeze-thawing of an IgG(2) monoclonal antibody (mAb). Solutions of the protein formulated in 20 mM of histidine buffer (pH 5.5) were subjected to three freeze-thaw cycles and analyzed by MFI and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). MFI showed increased particle numbers after each freeze-thaw cycle, whereas aggregates were not detected by SEC. Estimates of the total mass of particles formed revealed that monitoring of particle formation allows for the detection of protein aggregates comprising only hundredths of a percent of the total protein mass. Furthermore, differences in protein aggregation levels due to different formulations or different freeze-thawing protocols were resolved, even though protein aggregation could not be detected by SEC. To examine whether SEC and MFI-based estimations of total aggregate mass were in quantitative agreement, mAb was freeze-thawed in phosphate-buffered saline. This process created sufficient level of insoluble aggregates to be detected by SEC as a reduction in the monomer peak area in the chromatogram. There was good agreement between the loss of monomer detected by SEC and the total mass of subvisible particles detected by MFI.
本研究旨在评估微流成像(MFI)作为一种敏感工具,用于检测和量化 IgG(2)单克隆抗体(mAb)在冻融过程中形成的亚可见颗粒。将蛋白质在 20mM 组氨酸缓冲液(pH5.5)中配制的溶液进行三个冻融循环,并通过 MFI 和尺寸排阻色谱(SEC)进行分析。MFI 显示每次冻融循环后颗粒数量增加,而 SEC 未检测到聚集物。形成的颗粒总质量的估计表明,颗粒形成的监测允许检测仅占总蛋白质质量的百分之几的蛋白质聚集物。此外,即使 SEC 无法检测到蛋白质聚集,也可以解决由于不同配方或不同冻融方案导致的蛋白质聚集水平的差异。为了检查 SEC 和基于 MFI 的总聚集物质量估计是否具有定量一致性,将 mAb 在磷酸盐缓冲盐水中冻融。该过程产生了足够水平的不溶性聚集物,可通过 SEC 检测到,表现为色谱图中单体峰面积减少。SEC 检测到的单体损失与 MFI 检测到的亚可见颗粒的总质量之间存在良好的一致性。