Application Notes

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.

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 supernatant from Phanerochaete chrysosporium cultivation was loaded on CIM® QA Disk, and elution was effected by a linear gradient at a flow rate of 3 mL/min (9 CV/min). Baseline separation of isoenzymes H2, H6/H7, H8 and H10 was achieved in less than 3 minutes.

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.