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2017

David Vincent, Petra Kramberger, Rosana Hudej, Aleš Štrancar, Yaohe Wang,Yuhong Zhou, Ajoy Velayudhan

The purification of large viruses remains an important field of research and development. The development of efficient purification trains is limited by limited analytical methods, as well as by the complexity of large viruses, as well as the high variability in starting material from cell culture. Vaccinia virus holds great potential as an oncolytic and immunotherapeutic vaccine against a broad spectrum of cancers. In this work, monolith-based capture and polishing chromatographic steps for vaccinia virus Lister strain has been developed. Virus produced in CV-1 cells was harvested and passed through a 0.8μm pre-filter before loading onto CIEX, AIEX and HIC CIM monoliths. Without the need for nuclease treatment, up to 99% of the total DNA loaded can be removed from the vaccinia feed stream by the CIM OH monolith, which also reduces the total protein concentration in the product pool to LLOQ levels, and achieves infectious virus recoveries of 90%. Binding capacities of greater than 1x109 pfu of vaccinia per mL of matrix were obtained on both CIM SO3 and CIM OH monoliths. Multiple orthogonal analytical methods have been used to develop process knowledge and understanding.

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2016

P. Stepperta, D. Burgstallera, M. Klausbergera, E. Bergerb, P.P. Aguilara, T.A. Schneiderb, P. Krambergerc, A. Toverd,  K. Nöbauere, E. Razzazi-Fazelie, A. Jungbauer, Journal of Chromatography A, 1455 (2016)

Enveloped virus-like particles (VLPs) are increasingly used as vaccines and immunotherapeutics. Frequently, very time consuming density gradient centrifugation techniques are used for purification ofVLPs. However, the progress towards optimized large-scale VLP production increased the demand for fast, cost efficient and scaleable purification processes. We developed a chromatographic procedure for purification of HIV-1 gag VLPs produced in CHOcells. The clarified and filtered cell culture supernatant was directly processed on an anion-exchange monolith. The majority of host cell impurities passed throughthe column, whereas the VLPs were eluted by a linear or step salt gradient; the major fraction of DNA waseluted prior to VLPs and particles in the range of 100–200nm in diameter could be separated into two fractions. The earlier eluted fraction was enriched with extracellular particles associated to exosomes or microvesicles, whereas the late eluting fractions contained the majority of most pure HIV-1 gag VLPs. DNA content in the exosome-containing fraction could not be reduced by Benzonase treatment which indicated that the DNA was encapsulated. Many exosome markers were identified by proteomic analysisin this fraction. We present a laboratory method that could serve as a basis for rapid downstream processing of enveloped VLPs. Up to 2000 doses, each containing 1×109 particles, could be processed witha 1mL monolith within 47 min. The method compared to density gradient centrifugation has a 220-fold improvement in productivity.

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2015

J. Transfiguracion, A. P. Manceur, E. Petiot, C. M. Thompson, A. A. Kamen
Vaccine (2014)

The influenza virus continuously undergoes antigenic evolution requiring manufacturing, validation and release of new seasonal vaccine lots to match new circulating strains. Although current production processes are well established for manufacturing seasonal inactivated influenza vaccines, significant limitations have been underlined in the case of pandemic outbreaks. The World Health Organization called for a global pandemic influenza vaccine action plan including the development of new technologies. A rapid and reliable method for the quantification of influenza total particles is crucially needed to support the development, improvement and validation of novel influenza vaccine manufacturing platforms. This work presents the development of an ion exchange-high performance liquid chromatography method for the quantification of influenza virus particles. The method was developed using sucrose cushion purified influenza viruses A and B produced in HEK 293 suspension cell cultures. The virus was eluted in 1.5 M NaCl salt with 20 mM Tris–HCl and 0.01% Zwittergent at pH 8.0. It was detected by native fluorescence and the total analysis time was 13.5 min. A linear response range was established between 1 × 109 and 1 × 1011 virus particle per ml (VP/ml) with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.99. The limit of detection was between 2.07 × 108 and 4.35 × 109 whereas the limit of quantification was between 6.90 × 108 and 1.45 × 1010 VP/ml, respectively. The coefficient of variation of the intra- and inter-day precision of the method was less than 5% and 10%. HPLC data compared well with results obtained by electron microscopy, HA assay and with a virus counter, and was used to monitor virus concentrations in the supernatant obtained directly from the cell culture production vessels. The HPLC influenza virus analytical method can potentially be suitable as an in-process monitoring tool to accelerate the development of processes for the manufacturing of influenza vaccines.

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A.M. Almeida, J.A. Queiroz, F. Sousa, A. Sousa

Journal of Chromatography B, 978–979 (2015) 145–150

The progress of DNA vaccines is dependent on the development of suitable chromatographic procedures to successfully purify genetic vectors, such as plasmid DNA. Human Papillomavirus is associated with the development of tumours due to the oncogenic power of E6 and E7 proteins, produced by this virus. The supercoiled HPV-16 E6/E7 plasmid-based vaccine was recently purified with the arginine monolith, with 100% of purity, but only 39% of recovery was achieved. Therefore, the present study describes the application of experimental design tools, a newly explored methodology in preparative chromatography, in order to improve the supercoiled plasmid DNA recovery with the arginine monolith, maintaining the high purity degree. In addition, the importance and influence of pH in the pDNA retention to the arginine ligand was also demonstrated. The Composite Central Face design was validated and the recovery of the target molecule was successfully improved from 39% to 83.5%, with an outstanding increase of more than double, while maintaining 100% of purity.

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J-P Pirnay et al.

Pharm Res, Springer, 14 Jan 2015

The worldwide antibiotic crisis has led to a renewed interest in phage therapy. Since time immemorial phages control bacterial populations on Earth. Potent lytic phages against bacterial pathogens can be isolated from the environment or selected from a collection in a matter of days. In addition, phages have the capacity to rapidly overcome bacterial resistances, which will inevitably emerge.
To maximally exploit these advantage phages have over conventional drugs such as antibiotics, it is important that sustainable phage products are not submitted to the conventional long medicinal product development and licensing pathway. There is a need for an adapted framework, including realistic production and quality and safety requirements, that allows a timely supplying of phage therapy products for 'personalized therapy' or for public health or medical emergencies.
This paper enumerates all phage therapy product related quality and safety risks known to the authors, as well as the tests that can be performed to minimize these risks, only to the extent needed to protect the patients and to allow and advance responsible phage therapy and research.

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J. Ruscic, I. Gutiérrez-Aguirre, M. Tusek Znidaric, S. Kolundzija, A. Slana, M. Barut, M. Ravnikar, M. Krajacic
Journal of Chromatography A, 1388 (2015) 69–78

The emergence of next-generation "deep" sequencing has enabled the study of virus populations with much higher resolutions. This new tool increases the possibility of observing mixed infections caused by combinations of plant viruses, which are likely to occur more frequently than previously thought. The bio-logical impact of co-infecting viruses on their host has yet to be determined and fully understood, and the first step towards reaching this goal is the separation and purification of individual species. Ion-exchange monolith chromatography has been used successfully for the purification and concentration of different viruses, and number of them have been separated from plant homogenate or bacterial and eukaryoticlysate. Thus, the question remained as to whether different virus species present in a single sample could be separated. In this study, anion-exchange chromatography using monolithic supports was optimized for fast and efficient partial purification of three model plant viruses: Turnip yellow mosaic virus, Tomato bushy stunt virus, and Tobacco mosaic virus. The virus species, as well as two virus strains, were separated from each other in a single chromatographic experiment from an artificially mixed sample. Based on A260/280 ratios, we were able to attribute specific peaks to a certain viral morphology/structure (icosa-hedral or rod-shaped). This first separation of individual viruses from an artificially prepared laboratory mixture should encourage new applications of monolithic chromatographic supports in the separation of plant, bacterial, or animal viruses from all kinds of mixed samples.

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Zunyang Ke, Yu Wang and Zhongming Li

Anion-exchange chromatography is a key capture step in downstream processing plasmid DNA (pDNA). Separation of pDNA using traditional particle-based anion-exchange supports is usually slow and has a low capacity for pDNA due to steric exclusion effects. Due to convective mass transfer properties, and large flow-through channels for binding large biomolecules, monoliths have been shown to provide a fast and efficient alternative for pDNA purification. This study describes the use of monoliths for purification of a therapeutic pDNA vaccine against multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB).

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M. Zaveckas, S. Snipaitis, H. Pesliakas, J. Nainys, A. Gedvilaite
Journal of Chromatography B, 991 (2015) 21–28

Diseases associated with porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infection are having a severe economic impacton swine-producing countries. The PCV2 capsid (Cap) protein expressed in eukaryotic systems self-assemble into virus-like particles (VLPs) which can serve as antigens for diagnostics or/and as vaccinecandidates. In this work, conventional adsorbents as well as a monolithic support with large pore sizeswere examined for the chromatographic purification of PCV2 Cap VLPs from clarified yeast lysate. QSepharose XL was used for the initial separation of VLPs from residual host nucleic acids and some hostcell proteins. For the further purification of PCV2 Cap VLPs, SP Sepharose XL, Heparin Sepharose CL-6Band CIMmultus SO3 monolith were tested. VLPs were not retained on SP Sepharose XL. The purity of VLPsafter chromatography on Heparin Sepharose CL-6B was only 4–7% and the recovery of VLPs was 5–7%.Using ion-exchange chromatography on the CIMmultus SO3 monolith, PCV2 Cap VLPs with the purityof about 40% were obtained. The recovery of VLPs after chromatography on the CIMmultus SO3 mono-lith was 15–18%. The self-assembly of purified PCV2 Cap protein into VLPs was confirmed by electronmicroscopy. Two-step chromatographic purification procedure of PCV2 Cap VLPs from yeast lysate wasdeveloped using Q Sepharose XL and cation-exchange CIMmultus SO3 monolith.

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Urh Černigoj, Urška Martinuč, Sara Cardoso, Rok Sekirnik, Nika Lendero Krajnc, Aleš Štrancar

Sample displacement chromatography (SDC) is a chromatographic technique that utilises different rela-tive binding affinities of components in a sample mixture and has been widely studied in the context ofpeptide and protein purification. Here, we report a use of SDC to separate plasmid DNA (pDNA) isoformsunder overloading conditions, where supercoiled (sc) isoform acts as a displacer of open circular (oc) orlinear isoform. Since displacement is more efficient when mass transfer between stationary and mobilechromatographic phases is not limited by diffusion, we investigated convective interaction media (CIM)monoliths as stationary phases for pDNA isoform separation. CIM monoliths with different hydrophobic-ities and thus different binding affinities for pDNA (CIM C4 HLD, CIM-histamine and CIM-pyridine) weretested under hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) conditions. SD efficiency for pDNA isoformseparation was shown to be dependent on column selectivity for individual isoform, column efficiencyand on ammonium sulfate (AS) concentration in loading buffer (binding strength). SD and negative modeelution often operate in parallel, therefore negative mode elution additionally influences the efficiencyof the overall purification process. Optimisation of chromatographic conditions achieved 98% sc pDNAhomogeneity and a dynamic binding capacity of over 1 mg/mL at a relatively low concentration of AS.SDC was successfully implemented for the enrichment of sc pDNA for plasmid vectors of different sizes,and for separation of linear and and sc isoforms, independently of oc:sc isoform ratio, and flow-rate used.This study therefore identifies SDC as a promising new approach to large-scale pDNA purification, whichis compatible with continuous, multicolumn chromatography systems, and could therefore be used toincrease productivity of pDNA production in the future.

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2014

M. M. Segura, M. Puig, J. Piedra, S. Miravet

Adenovirus: Methods and protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1089

Adenovirus vectors are efficient gene delivery tools. A major caveat with vectors derived from common human adenovirus serotypes is that most adults are likely to have been exposed to the wild-type virus and exhibit active immunity against the vectors. This preexisting immunity limits their clinical success. Strategies to circumvent this problem include the use of nonhuman adenovirus vectors. Vectors derived from canine adenovirus type 2 (CAV-2) are among the best-studied representatives. CAV-2 vectors are particularly attractive for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, CAV-2 vectors have shown great promise as oncolytic agents in virotherapy approaches and as vectors for recombinant vaccines. The rising interest in CAV-2 vectors calls for the development of scalable GMP compliant production and purification strategies. A detailed protocol describing a complete scalable downstream processing strategy for CAV-2 vectors is reported here. Clarification of CAV-2 particles is achieved by microfiltration. CAV-2 particles are subsequently concentrated and partially purified by ultrafiltration–diafiltration. A Benzonase® digestion step is carried out between ultrafiltration and diafiltration operations to eliminate contaminating nucleic acids. Chromatography purification is accomplished in two consecutive steps. CAV-2 particles are first captured and concentrated on a propyl hydrophobic interaction chromatography column followed by a polishing step using DEAE anion exchange monoliths. Using this protocol, high-quality CAV-2 vector preparations containing low levels of contamination with empty viral capsids and other inactive vector forms are typically obtained. The complete process yield was estimated to be 38–45 %.

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F. W. Krainer, R. Pletzenauer, L. Rossetti, C. Herwig, A. Glieder, O. Spadiut

Protein Expression and Purification 95 (2014) 104–112

The plant enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is used in several important industrial and medical applications, of which especially biosensors and diagnostic kits describe an emerging field. Although there is an increasing demand for high amounts of pure enzyme preparations, HRP is still isolated from the plant as a mixture of different isoenzymes with different biochemical properties. Based on a recent next generation sequencing approach of the horseradish transcriptome, we produced 19 individual HRP isoenzymes recombinantly in the yeast Pichia pastoris. After optimizing a previously reported 2-step purification strategy for the recombinant isoenzyme HRP C1A by substituting an unfavorable size exclusion chromatography step with an anion exchange step using a monolithic column, we purified the 19 HRP isoenzymes with varying success. Subsequent basic biochemical characterization revealed differences in catalytic activity, substrate specificity and thermal stability of the purified HRP preparations. The preparations of the isoenzymes HRP A2A and HRP A2B were found to be highly interesting candidates for future applications in diagnostic kits with increased sensitivity.

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M.-C. Claudepierrea, et al.

Journal of Virology, February 2014

To identify novel stimulators of the innate immune system, we constructed a panel of eight HEK293-cells lines, double-positive for human Toll-like receptors (TLR) and a NF-κB-inducible reporter gene. Screening a large variety of compounds and cellular extracts detected a TLR3 activating compound in a microsomal yeast extract. Fractionation of this extract identified a RNA molecule of 4.6 kb, named Nucleic Acid Band 2 (NAB2) that was sufficient to confer the activation of TLR3. Digests with single- and double-strand-specific RNases showed the double-strand nature of this RNA, and its sequence was found to be identical to the genome of the dsRNA L-BC virus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A large scale production and purification process of this RNA was established based on chemical cell lysis and dsRNA-specific chromatography. NAB2 complexed with the cationic lipid Lipofectin, but neither NAB2 nor Lipofectin alone, induced the secretion of IL-12(p70), IFNα, IP-10, Mip-1β and IL-6 in human monocyte-derived dendritic cells. While NAB2 activated TLR3, Lipofectin-stabilized NAB2 signaled also via the cytoplasmic sensor for RNA recognition MDA-5. Significant increase of RMA-MUC1 tumor rejection and survival was observed in C57BL/6 mice after prophylactic vaccination with MUC1-encoding MVA and NAB2+Lipofectin. This combination of immunotherapeutics strongly increased the percentage of infiltrating Natural Killer (NK) cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) at the injection sites, cell types which can modulate innate and adaptive immune responses.

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M. Banjac, E. Roethl, F. Gelhart, P. Kramberger, B. Lah Jarc, M. Jarc, A. Štrancar, T. Muster, M. Peterka
Vaccine 2014

We explored the possibilities for purification of various ΔNS1 live, replication deficient influenza viruses on ion exchange methacrylate monoliths. Influenza A ΔNS1-H1N1, ΔNS1-H3N2, ΔNS1-H5N1 and ΔNS1-influenza B viruses were propagated in Vero cells and concentrated by tangential flow filtration. All four virus strains adsorbed well to CIM QA and CIM DEAE anion exchangers, with CIM QA producing higher recoveries than CIM DEAE. ΔNS1-influenza A viruses adsorbed well also to CIM SO3 cation exchanger at the same pH, while ΔNS1-influenza B virus adsorption to CIM SO3 was not complete. Dynamic binding capacity (DBC) for CIM QA, DEAE and SO3 methacrylate monoliths for influenza A ΔNS1-H1N1 virus were 1.9E+10 TCID50/ml, 1.0E+10 TCID50/ml and 8.9E+08 TCID50/ml, respectively. Purification of ΔNS1 viruses on CIM QA was scaled up and reproducibility was confirmed. Yields of infectious virus on CIM QA were between 70.8±32.3% and 87±30.8%. Total protein removal varied from 93.3±0.4% to 98.6±0.2% and host cell DNA removal efficiency was ranging from 76.4% to 99.9% and strongly depended on pretreatment with deoxyribonuclease.

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F. W. Krainer, R. Pletzenauer, L. Rossetti, C. Herwig, A. Glieder, O. Spadiut
Protein Expression and Purification 95 (2014) 104–112

The plant enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is used in several important industrial and medical applications, of which especially biosensors and diagnostic kits describe an emerging field. Although there is an increasing demand for high amounts of pure enzyme preparations, HRP is still isolated from the plant as a mixture of different isoenzymes with different biochemical properties. Based on a recent next generation sequencing approach of the horseradish transcriptome, we produced 19 individual HRP isoenzymes recombinantly in the yeast Pichia pastoris. After optimizing a previously reported 2-step purification strategy for the recombinant isoenzyme HRP C1A by substituting an unfavorable size exclusion chromatography step with an anion exchange step using a monolithic column, we purified the 19 HRP isoenzymes with varying success. Subsequent basic biochemical characterization revealed differences in catalytic activity, substrate specificity and thermal stability of the purified HRP preparations. The preparations of the isoenzymes HRP A2A and HRP A2B were found to be highly interesting candidates for future applications in diagnostic kits with increased sensitivity.

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2013

M. Bartolini, I. W. Wainer, C. Bertucci, V. Andrisano

Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 73 (2013) 77-81

Adenosine nucleotides are involved as substrates or co-factors in several biochemical reactions, catalyzed by enzymes, which modulate energy production, signal transduction and cell proliferation. We here report the development and optimization of an ion exchange liquid chromatography (LC) method for the determination of ATP, ADP and AMP. This method is specifically aimed at the determination of the ATP-ase activity of human heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), a molecular chaperone that has emerged as target enzyme in cancer therapy. Separation of the three nucleotides was achieved in a 15-min run by using a disk shaped monolithic ethylene diamine stationary phase of small dimensions (2 mm × 6 mm i.d.), under a three-solvent gradient elution mode and UV detection at 256 nm. The described direct LC method resulted highly specific as a consequence of the baseline separation of the three adenosine nucleotides and could be applied to the determination of the enzymatic activity of ADP/ATP generating or consuming enzymes (such as kinases). Furthermore, comparison of the LOD and LOQ values of the LC method with those obtained with the malachite green assay, which is one of the most used indirect screening methodologies for ATP-ase activity, showed that the LC method has a similar range of application without presenting the drawbacks related to contamination by inorganic phosphate ions and glycerol, which are present in Hsp90 commercial samples.

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F. Ibrahim, C. Andre, R. Aljhni, T. Gharbi, Y. C. Guillaume

Journal of Molecular Catalysis B: Enzymatic 94 (2013) 136-140

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is a serine protease that hydrolyzes the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Here, the effects of hydroxyl radical (OH•) and nitric oxide (NO) on AChE activity were studied using a biochromatographic process. The enzyme was immobilized on an ethylenediamine (EDA) monolithic convective interaction media (CIM) disk. The AChE enzymatic mechanism was demonstrated from the chromatographic peak shape. A decrease in AChE activity was observed for each concentration of NO, while OH• dot radical formation led to an increase in the rate of enzymatic catalysis. Michaelis–Menten and Lineweaver–Burk plots were obtained in the presence or absence of the free radicals and their effects on Km and Vmax were evaluated. Our results indicated classical deactivation/activation kinetics without significant influence on the rate of substrate binding. The variation in transition state energies (ΔΔGES) induced by the free radicals indicated that a conformational change was occurring in the active site, while changes in the binding site were negligible. These results clearly demonstrate the direct role of OH• dot and NO on AChE activity and confirm the role they may play in Alzheimer's disease.

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H. G. Schwelberger, J. Feurle, F. Ahrens

Journal of Neural Transmission 120 (2013) 983-986

Diamine oxidase (DAO) was purified to homogeneity from human seminal plasma by consecutive chromatographic fractionation on heparin-sepharose, phenyl-sepharose, CIM-QA, and Superdex 200. Human seminal plasma DAO behaves electrophoretically similar to DAO proteins from other human tissues and has very similar enzymatic properties with histamine and aliphatic diamines being the preferred substrates as well as significant conversion of polyamines. The cellular source and functional importance of DAO in human semen remain to be determined.

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E. Mota, A. Sousa, U. Černigoj, J. A. Queiroz, C. T. Tomaz, F. Sousa

Journal of Chromatography A (2013)

The demand for high-purity supercoiled plasmid DNA to be applied as a vector for new therapeutic strategies, such as gene therapy or DNA vaccination has increased in the last years. Thus, it is necessary to implement an analytical technique suitable to control the quality of the supercoiled plasmid as a pharmaceutical product during the manufacturing process. The present study describes a new methodology to quantify and monitor the purity of supercoiled plasmid DNA by using a monolithic column based on anion-exchange chromatography. This analytical method with UV detection allows the separation of the plasmid isoforms by combining a NaCl stepwise gradient. The specificity, linearity, accuracy, reproducibility and repeatability of the method have been evaluated, and the lower quantification and detection limits were also established. The validation was performed according to the guidelines, being demonstrated that the method is precise and accurate for a supercoiled plasmid concentration up to 200 μg/mL. The main advantage achieved by using this monolithic column is the possibility to quantify the supercoiled plasmid in a sample containing other plasmid topologies, in a 4 min experiment. This column also permits the assessment of the supercoiled plasmid DNA present in more complex samples, allowing to control its quality throughout the bioprocess. Therefore, these findings strengthen the possibility of using this monolithic column associated with a powerful analytical method to control the process development of supercoiled plasmid DNA production and purification for therapeutic applications.

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S. Haberl, M. Jarc, A. Štrancar, M. Peterka, D. Hodžić, D. Miklavčič

J Membrane Biol, DOI 10.1007/s00232-013-9580-5

The use of plasmid DNA (pDNA) as a pharmaceutical tool has increased since it represents a safer vector for gene transfer compared to viral vectors. Different pDNA extraction methods have been described; among them is alkaline lysis, currently the most commonly used. Although alkaline lysis represents an established method for isolation of pDNA, some drawbacks are recognized, such as entrapment of pDNA in cell debris, leading to lower pDNA recovery; the time-consuming process; and increase of the volume due to the buffers used, all leading to increased cost of production. We compared the concentration of extracted pDNA when two methods for extracting pDNA from Escherichia coli were used: alkaline lysis and a method based on membrane electroporation, electroextraction. At the same time, we also studied the effect of different pulse protocols on bacterial inactivation. The concentration of pDNA was assayed with anion exchange chromatography. When alkaline lysis was used, two incubations of lysis time (5 and 10 min) were compared in terms of the amount of isolated pDNA. We did not observe any difference in pDNA concentration regardless of incubation time used. In electroextraction, different pulse protocols were used in order to exceed the pDNA concentration obtained by alkaline lysis. We show that electroextraction gives a higher concentration of extracted pDNA than alkaline lysis, suggesting the use of electroporation as a potentially superior method for extracting pDNA from E. coli. In addition, electroextraction represents a quicker alternative to alkaline lysis for extracting pDNA.

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B. Gabor, U. Černigoj, M. Barut, A. Štrancar

Journal of Chromatography A, 1311 (2013) 106-114

HPLC based analytical assay is a powerful technique that can be used to efficiently monitor plasmid DNA (pDNA) purity and quantity throughout the entire purification process. Anion exchange monolithic and non-porous particle based stationary phases were used to study the recovery of the different pDNA isoforms from the analytical column. Three differently sized pDNA molecules of 3.0 kbp, 5.2 kbp and 14.0 kbp were used. Plasmid DNA was injected onto columns under the binding conditions and the separation of the isoforms took place by increasing the ionic strength of the elution buffer. While there was no substantial decrease of the recovered supercoiled and linear isoforms of the pDNA with the increase of the plasmid size and with the increase of the flow rate (recoveries in all cases larger than 75%), a pronounced decrease of the oc isoform recovery was observed. The entrapment of the oc pDNA isoform occurred under non-binding conditions as well. The partial oc isoform elution from the column could be achieved by decreasing the flow rate of the elution mobile phase. The results suggested a reversible entrapment of the oc isoform in the restrictions within the pores of the monolithic material as well as within the intra-particle space of the non-porous particles. This phenomenon was observed on both types of the stationary phase morphologies and could only be connected to the size of a void space through which the pDNA needs to migrate. A prediction of reversible pDNA entrapment was successfully estimated with the calculation of Peclet numbers, Pe, which defines the ratio between a convective and diffusive mass transport.

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