Production and Purification of Newcastle Disease Virus: A High-Yield Platform Process Based on a Novel Avian Cell Line and Monolith Chromatography
Hana Jug, Natalija Hosta, Mojca Tajnik Sbaizero, Aleš Štrancar, Daniela Brodesser, Bianca Tisch, Theresa Heger, Markus Wolschek, Joachim Seipelt and Manfred Reiter
BioProcess International, 9 February 2023
Newcastle disease is an extremely infectious condition among domesticated poultry and other avian species. Its high morbidity and mortality rates among infected birds give the disease significant economic importance. Thus, many commercially available vaccines based on live or inactivated virions are used globally to protect against Newcastle disease infection.
The causative agent is Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family. NDV is a single-stranded, negative sense, enveloped RNA virus of avian origin that is highly attenuated in humans and other primates because of strong host-range restriction. Attenuated NDV has been evaluated as a vector for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, H5N1 influenza, West Nile, and simian immunodeficiency viruses. Oncolytic NDV vectors also hold much promise for immunotherapies against various cancers.
Whether for vaccines or viral-vector therapies, NDV particles must meet certain criteria for yield, purity, and concentration. Previously, we have described a highly effective process for purification of influenza virus produced in Vero cells. Based on CIMmultus SO3 (sulfonate) monolith columns, the process yielded excellent recovery and impurity removal and enabled good manufacturing practice (GMP) scale-up to produce clinical-grade material. Here, we describe our adaptation of the process to NDV purification and thus demonstrate the broad applicability of SO3 monolith technology.