The effects of flux on the clearance of minute virus of mice during constant flux virus filtration

Abstract

Constant flux virus filtration experiments were conducted to evaluate minute virus of mice retention behavior of four commercial virus filters for continuous bioprocessing applications. Fluxes chosen were guided by the Peclet number and the processing logistics as well as based on the filter characteristics. At the low flux condition of 5 ${\mathrm{LM}}^{-2}{H}^{-1}$ (LMH) when diffusive force dominates, a significant breakthrough was observed for all the filtrate fractions for the filtration of a low fouling monoclonal antibody for three of the four filters. When both diffusive and convective forces are equally important at 40 LMH, virus breakthrough in buffer chase was observed only in one of the four filters investigated. When convective force dominates at 60 LMH or above, a high degree of virus clearance was observed for all three parvovirus filters investigated. Our work shed light on virus clearance during constant flux virus filtration for future continuous biomanufacturing.

Keywords: constant flux filtration; continuous downstream processing; virus filtration.