Application Notes

Virus like particles (VLPs) are particles that structurally resemble viruses but do not contain any genetic material. They are formed when structural viral proteins spontaneously self-assemble in transfected cells. After VLPs are formed they need to be purified. Since the extract from expressing cells contains not only VLPs but also cellular DNA and proteins, VLPs purification represents a great challenge for the downstream processing.

Adenovirus serotype 3 dodecahedric virus-like particles (Ad3 VLPs) are an efficient vector for the delivery of the anticancer antibiotic drug bleomycin (BLM) – the use of Ad3 VLPs results in over 100 fold improvement of BLM bioavaliability. Ad3 VLPs are formed from penton bases of the adenovirus serotype 3 (Ad3) after these penton bases are expressed in a baculovirus/insect cell system. Ad3 VLPs are approximately 28 nm in size and have a molecular mass of 3.6 MDa. The current purification process of Ad3 VLPs consists of two purification steps, ultracentrifugation with a sucrose gradient (step 1) and ion-exchange chromatography (step 2) on Q-Sepharose and the whole procedure takes 5 days. Since Ad3 VLPs are large biomolecules, monolithic technology was applied for their purification with the aim to speed up the purification process.

Adenoviruses are among the most commonly used vectors for the delivery of genetic material into human cells and as such there is demand for high-titre manufacturing processes. The key to the successful development of such processes are analytical methods that can be applied to the final purified samples and throughout the production process. Many conventional methods for quantitative analysis of adenoviruses are labour and time-intensive. For example, a plaque assay can take up to 7 days to perform, is prone to error and will only report the number of infectious and not total viral particles. The resolving power of the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), on the other hand, permits separation of intact virus particles from other cellular contaminants or virus particle fragments.

Anion-exchange chromatography has already been applied to analyse various adenovirus preparations. The results from the anion-exchange HPLC methods can be obtained much faster, within minutes, thus allowing for a faster evaluation of different process steps. A method was designed and developed to quantify adenoviral particles using a strong anion-exchange CIMac™ Analytical column. Regeneration conditions were incorporated to extend the functional life of the column.

Adenovirus vectors have proven as useful tool for gene therapy, vaccine therapy and basic biology studies. The increasing importance of the recombinant adenoviruses pushes the limits of research in the field of adenovirus purification methods. There is a global focus on large scale production of adenovirus vectors, providing high titres combined with fast, effective and reliable purification methods.

Because of the physico-chemical properties adenovirus vectors possess, they can effectively be purified using ion-exchange chromatography. Here we present a simple and rapid method for adenovirus vectors purification using ion-exchange CIM ®QA chromatographic supports (Figure 1). CIM® monolithic supports are a new generation of chromatographic supports able to meet the GMP and GLP requirements in the field of virus purification.

As the demand for plasmid DNA (pDNA) based gene therapy and vaccines increases, large scale, cost effective, and reproducible pDNA production will be required. The key to success is a real time in-process control method that ensures a high percentage of supercoiled pDNA in the final product. CIMac™ pDNA Analytical Column allows the monitoring of degradation products (open circular and linear pDNA), the removal of impurities (RNA), and ensures that each production step is yielding the amount of supercoiled pDNA anticipated.

Diluted samples of live attenuated measles and mumps virus were each loaded on CIM® DEAE Disk. Concentrated eluates of viral RNA were subjected to molecular detection by PCR. It was demonstrated that enrichment of viral RNA on a CIM® DEAE Disk prior PCR is feasible and successful.

A mixture of 8mer, 10mer, 12mer, 14mer, 15mer and 16mer Oligodeoxynucleotides was loaded on CIM® DEAE Disk and eluted in linear gradient mode at a flow rate of 6 mL/min (17 CV/min). Separation of all nucleotides could be accomplished within 60 seconds.