Evaluation of novel large cut-off ultrafiltration membranes for adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) concentration

PLoS One. 2014 Dec 29;9(12):e115802. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115802. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The purification of virus particles and viral vectors for vaccine and gene therapy applications is gaining increasing importance in order to deliver a fast, efficient, and reliable production process. Ultrafiltration (UF) is a widely employed unit operation in bioprocessing and its use is present in several steps of the downstream purification train of biopharmaceuticals. However, to date few studies have thoroughly investigated the performance of several membrane materials and cut-offs for virus concentration/diafiltration. The present study aimed at developing a novel class of UF cassettes for virus concentration/diafiltration. A detailed study was conducted to evaluate the effects of (i) membrane materials, namely polyethersulfone (PES), regenerated cellulose (RC), and highly cross-linked RC (xRC), (ii) nominal cut-off, and (iii) UF device geometry at different production scales. The results indicate that the xRC cassettes with a cut-off of approximately 500 kDa are able to achieve a 10-fold concentration factor with 100% recovery of particles with a process time twice as fast as that of a commercially available hollow fiber. DNA and host cell protein clearances, as well as hydraulic permeability and fouling behavior, were also assessed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenoviridae / isolation & purification*
  • Cellulose / chemistry*
  • Evaluation Studies as Topic*
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Membranes, Artificial*
  • Permeability
  • Polymers / chemistry
  • Sulfones / chemistry
  • Ultrafiltration / methods

Substances

  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Polymers
  • Sulfones
  • polyether sulfone
  • Cellulose

Grants and funding

Financial support from Sartorius Stedim Biotech and from the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT-MCTES) (SFRH/BD/82032/2011 PTDC/EBB-BIO/101992/2008 and PTDC/EBB457BIO/119501/2010). Sartorius Stedim Biotech provided support in the form of salaries for authors SR and TS, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.