Viral purification

The basic process technology in vaccine production consists of fermentation for the production of antigen, purification of antigen, and formulation of the final vaccine. In bacterial fermentation, technology is weU estabHshed. For viral vaccines, ceU culture is the standard procedure. Different variations of ceU line and process system are in use. For most of the Hve viral vaccine and other subunit vaccines, production is by direct infection of a ceU substrate with the vims. 

Several plant vims coat proteins, including those of TMV, CPMV, AlMV and Tomato bushy stunt vims (TBSV), have been used to produce and deliver antigenic determinants from a variety of viral and bacterial pathogens. These data have been summarized in numerous publications and several reviews [12,13]. The ease of virus purification coupled with enhanced peptide immunogenicity when fused to carrier molecules makes this approach very attractive for vaccine development. 

A prerequisite step to any rDNA work is the initial isolation of DNA or RNA from the source material (which can be microbial, plant, animal or viral). Numerous methodologies have been developed to achieve nucleic acid purification, and some of these methodologies have been adapted for use in a variety of commercially available purification kits. Although details vary, the general... 

After its purification, sterile filtration and aseptic filling, human urokinase is normally freeze-dried. Because of its heat stability, the final product may also be heated to 60 °C for up to 10 h in an effort to inactivate any undetected viral particles present. The product utilized clinically contains both molecular mass forms, with the higher molecular mass moiety predominating. Urokinase can also be produced by techniques of animal cell culture utilizing human kidney cells or by recombinant DNA technology. 

The starting material will likely be contaminated by intact, viable hepatitis B viral particles (and perhaps additional viruses, such as HIV). This necessitates introduction of stringent purification procedures to ensure complete removal of any intact viral particles from the product stream. A final product QC test to confirm this entails a 6-month safety test on chimpanzees. 

Viral vector manufacture for therapeutic purposes involves initial viral propagation in appropriate animal cell lines, viral recovery, concentration, purification and formulation. A generalized manufacturing scenario for adenoviral-based vectors is outlined in Figure 14.7. The manufacture of alternative viral vectors likely follows a substantially similar approach. 

Cell Bank Maintenance and Record Keeping Cell Culture/Fermentation Harvesting, Isolation, and Purification Viral Removal/Inactivation Steps APIs for Use in Clinical Trials General Quality... 

Protocol 1.8 Purification of recombinant virus and determination of viral titre by plaque assay... 

The use of other hosts for HTP cloning, expression, and purification has been much more limited than E. coli, which remains the system of choice for high-level protein production. However, for many mammalian and viral proteins, problems of... 

Alexandrov, A., Dutta, K. and Pascal, S. M. (2001). MBP fusion protein with a viral protease cleavage site one-step cleavage/purification of insoluble proteins. Biotechniques 30, 1194—1198. 

Figure 3.9. Generalized overview of the industrial-scale manufacture of recombinant E2 classical swine fever-based vaccine, using insect cell culture production systems. Clean (uninfected) cells are initially cultured in 500-1000 litre bioreactors for several days, followed by viral addition. Upon product recovery, viral inactivating agents such as /i-propiolactone or 2-bromoethyl-iminebromide are added in order to destroy any free viral particles in the product stream. No chromatographic purification is generally undertaken as the product is substantially pure the cell culture media is protein-free and the recombinant product is the only protein exported in any quantity by the producer cells. Excipients added can include liquid paraffin and polysorbate 80 (required to generate an emulsion). Thiomersal may also be added as a preservative. The final product generally displays a shelf-life of 18 months when stored refrigerated...

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