Protein impurity immunoassays

Cell Culture-Derived Media-Derived Protein Impurities. Immunoassays can detect low impurity levels (<1 ppm).4 The ELISA is probably one of the most sensitive analytical methods. If bovine serum is used as a media component, then testing should include ELISAs for bovine serum albumin (BSA), bovine transferrin, bovine fetuin, and bovine IgG. Often hormones and growth factors, such as insulin or insulinlike growth factor, are used as media components. ELISAs should be used to detect and quantitate these residuals in the various production steps as well as in the final product. There are commercially available antibodies to most commonly used media components. If proprietary media components are used, then the same investment in time and effort is required for the production of specific antibodies, as described above for host cell impurities. 

Improvement and Experimental Validation of Protein Impurity Immunoassays for Recombinant DNA Products... 

Anicetti, V. R. (1990). Improvement and experimental validation of protein impurity immunoassays for recombinant DNA products. ACS Sytnp. Ser. 434, 127-140. 

Hoffman advises, Relying solely on a process-specific assay is ill advised and can result in failure to detect atypical process contaminants. In cases with a defined, persistent, and problematic host cell protein impurity, a down-stream process-specific assay may be justified. It is critical that the immunoassay be capable of detecting every possible host cell protein contaminant. 13... 

The validity of any statement about the purity of a protein is directly linked to the quality of the analytical method used. The validation of immunoassay systems to detect protein impurities in rDNA pharmaceuticals must be achieved by careful production and characterization of the assay reagents. The studies presented here demonstrate that the blank run approach is reasonable for the isolation of reference materials and that high quality broad spectrum antisera can be produced to these mixtures. Significant improvements in assay sensitivity approaching the ppb level are attainable and should provide the methods to further improve product purity. 

Immunoassays are the most specific and sensitive techniques available for detecting protein impurities. There are two classes of protein impurities that are most often analyzed with these techniques host-cell proteins and protein additives, both of which are process-related impurities. Although protein additives are known entities and therefore amenable to other quantitative... 

In addition to ELISA and Western blots for detecting host-cell protein impurities there is a third immunoassay now available to the bioanalyst for this purpose the immunoligand assay (ILA). Like the ELISA, it is configured as a double-antibody sandwich. The anti-host-cell protein antibodies are separately conjugated to biotin and to fluorescein. A tripartite immune complex is formed between host-cell protein impurities and these two anti-... 

This part will mainly focus on host cell proteins (HCPs) quantification. Process-specific HCP assays are in general targeted to be in place prior to the initiation of phase III clinical trials. Immunoassays are the most specific and sensitive techniques available for detecting and quantifying protein impurities. There are two methods commonly employed to quantify protein impurities in biopharmaceuticals enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and immunoligand assays (ILA). Both methods are able to detect very low ppm level of impurities. ELISA have been developed to measure host protein impurities in a number of recombinant proteins including human growth hormone (Anicetti et ah, 1986), insulin (Baker et al, 1981) and staphylokinase (Wan et ah, 2002). ILA assays have been used to detect protein impurities in recombinant bovine somatotropin (Whitmire and Eaton,... 

Most recombinant biopharmaceuticals are produced in microbial or mammalian cell lines. Thus, although the product is derived from a human gene, all product-unrelated contaminants will be derived from the producer organism. These non-self-proteins are likely to be highly immunogenic in humans, rendering their removal from the product stream especially important. Immunoassays may be conveniently used to detect and quantify non-product-related impurities... 

The detection and accurate quantitation of any protein in an immunoassay requires that a condition of antibody excess exist. This is required for each protein in the reference impurity preparation. The acquisition and characterization of broad spectrum antisera against complex protein mixtures, therefore, is a fundamental goal in the development of these assay systems. 

The continuing refinement in the selection of reference materials and the production of antibodies to complex protein mixtures has resulted in immunoassay systems of remarkable sensitivity and specificity. In particular, the selection and enrichment of the antibody population by immunoaffinity purification against the reference impurities has afforded an additional level of control over the production and validation of these reagents and served to improve the assay range and sensitivity (6,17). This normalization of the antibody population to a stoichiometric relationship with the reference impurities has suggested the term Antigen Selected Immunoassay (ASIA) for these methods. 

One example of a practical application where polyelectrolytes are of crucial interest are immunoassays, where charged polymers are attached to surfaces and are then exposed to protein solution with the aim of loading of the polymer layer with a reproducible amount of these proteins. The protein-loaded particles or planar films thus obtained are in turn exposed to analyte solutions containing other proteins. If the proteins in the film match the proteins in solution, protein-protein complexes are formed, which are then visualized and/or quantified. In order to complete such a process successfully knowledge about the swelling of the polyelectrolyte layer in buffer solutions and the interaction of such a layer with proteins has to be established. Further questions, which are of great importance for such polyelectrolyte systems are the behavior of the monolayers in contact with common impurities present in contacting solutions especially traces of multivalent ions or tensides. 

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