Peptide-Based Affinity Adsorbents with High Binding Capacity for the Purification of Monoclonal Antibodies

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High binding capacity and selectivity are key features for the successful application of affinity adsorbents for antibody purification. This study presents the development of affinity resins based on hexapeptide ligand HWRGWV for recovering monoclonal antibodies from cell culture fluids. Methods are presented for the immobilization of the peptide ligand and its variants on polymethacrylate and agarose based chromatographic supports using two main coupling strategies. The first one involves the formation of a peptide bond between the amino groups on the substrate and the peptide C-terminus activated with the uronium coupling agent HATU. The second approach involves resin activation with iodoacetic acid, followed by coupling of a cysteine-terminated variant of the ligand to form a thioether bond. The reaction conditions of peptide coupling were optimized to maximize the binding capacity of the resulting adsorbents. The peptide resins were characterized by measuring their static IgG binding capacities. The measured static binding capacity ranged from 35 to 48 mg/mL. The dynamic binding capacities (DBC) of four selected adsorbents were also determined, and they ranged from of 35 to 42 mg/mL with a 5-min residence time. All the resins exhibited high selectivity toward the Fc fragment of IgG. The affinity resins were used to purify two MAbs, a chimeric IgG1 and a humanized IgG4, from commercial CHO cell culture fluids. The resulting yields and purities for both MAbs were found to be in the range of 87–93% and >94%, respectively, which compare well with the purity and yield values obtained using commercially available Protein A media. Finally, the peptide resin with the highest IgG binding capacity, HWRGWVC-WorkBeads, was tested for 20 DBC cycles which included cleaning in place with 0.1 M NaOH after every cycle. The resin showed a high degree of reusability and alkaline stability, as it maintained 90% of its initial capacity.