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Warzak DA, Pike WA, Luttgeharm KD. Capillary electrophoresis methods for determining the IVT mRNA critical quality attributes of size and purity. SLAS Technol 2023; 28:369-374. [PMID: 37833008 DOI: 10.1016/j.slast.2023.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Revised: 06/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023]
Abstract
One result of the Covid-19 pandemic has been an increased awareness of IVT mRNA vaccines and the speed at which they can be produced for disease outbreaks. Currently the only approved IVT mRNA therapeutics are the Covid-19 vaccines, however IVT mRNA is being investigated for other non-Covid prophylactic vaccines, therapeutics, and therapeutic vaccines. IVT mRNAs can range from less than 100 nt in length to longer than 9,000 nt. When producing any IVT mRNA, quality control of the IVT mRNA is essential to ensure that the product is the correct length and does not contain truncated or degraded mRNA. Capillary gel electrophoresis provides high resolution separations of the IVT mRNA of interest from the degraded or truncated impurities allowing for the accurate purity assessment of IVT mRNA. Specialized capillary electrophoresis gels can also be used to provide analysis of purified poly(A) tails enabling characterization of multiple Critical Quality Attributes on a single platform. Here we describe methods for the purity assessment of IVT mRNAs through either 6,000 or 9,000 nt and determination of poly(A) tail length using different capillary gel electrophoresis methods.
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Abstract
RNA-based therapeutics have shown great promise in various medical applications, including cancers, infectious diseases, and metabolic diseases. The recent success of mRNA vaccines for combating the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the medical value of RNA drugs. However, one of the major challenges in realizing the full potential of RNA drugs is to deliver RNA into specific organs and tissues in a targeted manner, which is crucial for achieving therapeutic efficacy, reducing side effects, and enhancing overall treatment efficacy. Numerous attempts have been made to pursue targeting, nonetheless, the lack of clear guideline and commonality elucidation has hindered the clinical translation of RNA drugs. In this review, we outline the mechanisms of action for targeted RNA delivery systems and summarize four key factors that influence the targeting delivery of RNA drugs. These factors include the category of vector materials, chemical structures of vectors, administration routes, and physicochemical properties of RNA vectors, and they all notably contribute to specific organ/tissue tropism. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the main RNA-based drugs that are currently in clinical trials, highlighting their design strategies and tissue tropism applications. This review will aid to understand the principles and mechanisms of targeted delivery systems, accelerating the development of future RNA drugs for different diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lixin Lin
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Kexin Su
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Qiang Cheng
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Shuai Liu
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 311121, China
- Eye Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, Zhejiang, China
- National Key Laboratory of Advanced Drug Delivery and Release Systems, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
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Avumegah MS, Mattiuzzo G, Särnefält A, Page M, Makar K, Lathey J, Kim J, Yimer SA, Craig D, Knezevic I, Bernasconi V, Kristiansen PA, Kromann I. Availability and use of Standards in vaccine development. NPJ Vaccines 2023; 8:95. [PMID: 37391580 PMCID: PMC10313826 DOI: 10.1038/s41541-023-00692-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Reference materials are critical in assay development for calibrating and assessing their suitability. The devasting nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent proliferation of vaccine platforms and technologies has meant that there is even a greater need for standards for immunoassay development, which are critical to assess and compare vaccines' responses. Equally important are the standards needed to control the vaccine manufacturing processes. Standardized vaccine characterization assays throughout process development are essential for a successful Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) strategy. In this perspective paper, we advocate for reference material incorporation into assays and their calibration to International Standards from preclinical vaccine development through control testing and provide insight into why this is necessary. We also provide information on the availability of WHO international antibody standards for CEPI-priority pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Giada Mattiuzzo
- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Potters Bar, UK
| | - Anna Särnefält
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Oslo, Norway
| | - Mark Page
- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Potters Bar, UK
| | - Karen Makar
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Seattle, USA
| | - Janet Lathey
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Bethesda, USA
| | - June Kim
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Danielle Craig
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Oslo, Norway
| | | | | | | | - Ingrid Kromann
- Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Oslo, Norway
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Banoun H. mRNA: Vaccine or Gene Therapy? The Safety Regulatory Issues. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:10514. [PMID: 37445690 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241310514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/21/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023] Open
Abstract
COVID-19 vaccines were developed and approved rapidly in response to the urgency created by the pandemic. No specific regulations existed at the time they were marketed. The regulatory agencies therefore adapted them as a matter of urgency. Now that the pandemic emergency has passed, it is time to consider the safety issues associated with this rapid approval. The mode of action of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines should classify them as gene therapy products (GTPs), but they have been excluded by regulatory agencies. Some of the tests they have undergone as vaccines have produced non-compliant results in terms of purity, quality and batch homogeneity. The wide and persistent biodistribution of mRNAs and their protein products, incompletely studied due to their classification as vaccines, raises safety issues. Post-marketing studies have shown that mRNA passes into breast milk and could have adverse effects on breast-fed babies. Long-term expression, integration into the genome, transmission to the germline, passage into sperm, embryo/fetal and perinatal toxicity, genotoxicity and tumorigenicity should be studied in light of the adverse events reported in pharmacovigilance databases. The potential horizontal transmission (i.e., shedding) should also have been assessed. In-depth vaccinovigilance should be carried out. We would expect these controls to be required for future mRNA vaccines developed outside the context of a pandemic.
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Oude Blenke E, Örnskov E, Schöneich C, Nilsson GA, Volkin DB, Mastrobattista E, Almarsson Ö, Crommelin DJA. The Storage and In-Use Stability of mRNA Vaccines and Therapeutics: Not A Cold Case. J Pharm Sci 2023; 112:386-403. [PMID: 36351479 PMCID: PMC9637289 DOI: 10.1016/j.xphs.2022.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2022] [Revised: 11/02/2022] [Accepted: 11/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
The remarkable impact of mRNA vaccines on mitigating disease and improving public health has been amply demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many new mRNA-based vaccine and therapeutic candidates are in development, yet the current reality of their stability limitations requires their frozen storage. Numerous challenges remain to improve formulated mRNA stability and enable refrigerator storage, and this review provides an update on developments to tackle this multi-faceted stability challenge. We describe the chemistry underlying mRNA degradation during storage and highlight how lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations are a double-edged sword: while LNPs protect mRNA against enzymatic degradation, interactions with and between LNP excipients introduce additional risks for mRNA degradation. We also discuss strategies to improve mRNA stability both as a drug substance (DS) and a drug product (DP) including the (1) design of the mRNA molecule (nucleotide selection, primary and secondary structures), (2) physical state of the mRNA-LNP complexes, (3) formulation composition and purity of the components, and (4) DS and DP manufacturing processes. Finally, we summarize analytical control strategies to monitor and assure the stability of mRNA-based candidates, and advocate for an integrated analytical and formulation development approach to further improve their storage, transport, and in-use stability profiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erik Oude Blenke
- Advanced Drug Delivery, Pharmaceutical Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, 43183 Gothenburg, Sweden.
| | - Eivor Örnskov
- Advanced Drug Delivery, Pharmaceutical Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, 43183 Gothenburg, Sweden.
| | - Christian Schöneich
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66047 United States.
| | - Gunilla A Nilsson
- Advanced Drug Delivery, Pharmaceutical Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, 43183 Gothenburg, Sweden.
| | - David B Volkin
- Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66047 United States; Vaccine Analytics and Formulation Center, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66047 United States.
| | - Enrico Mastrobattista
- Department of Pharmaceutics, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
| | - Örn Almarsson
- AfiRx LLC, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 United States; Visiting Fellow, UNSW RNA Institute and the School of Chemistry, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.
| | - Daan J A Crommelin
- Department of Pharmaceutics, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Utrecht University, the Netherlands.
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Sei S, Ahadova A, Keskin DB, Bohaumilitzky L, Gebert J, von Knebel Doeberitz M, Lipkin SM, Kloor M. Lynch syndrome cancer vaccines: A roadmap for the development of precision immunoprevention strategies. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1147590. [PMID: 37035178 PMCID: PMC10073468 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1147590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 04/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Hereditary cancer syndromes (HCS) account for 5~10% of all cancer diagnosis. Lynch syndrome (LS) is one of the most common HCS, caused by germline mutations in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes. Even with prospective cancer surveillance, LS is associated with up to 50% lifetime risk of colorectal, endometrial, and other cancers. While significant progress has been made in the timely identification of germline pathogenic variant carriers and monitoring and early detection of precancerous lesions, cancer-risk reduction strategies are still centered around endoscopic or surgical removal of neoplastic lesions and susceptible organs. Safe and effective cancer prevention strategies are critically needed to improve the life quality and longevity of LS and other HCS carriers. The era of precision oncology driven by recent technological advances in tumor molecular profiling and a better understanding of genetic risk factors has transformed cancer prevention approaches for at-risk individuals, including LS carriers. MMR deficiency leads to the accumulation of insertion and deletion mutations in microsatellites (MS), which are particularly prone to DNA polymerase slippage during DNA replication. Mutations in coding MS give rise to frameshift peptides (FSP) that are recognized by the immune system as neoantigens. Due to clonal evolution, LS tumors share a set of recurrent and predictable FSP neoantigens in the same and in different LS patients. Cancer vaccines composed of commonly recurring FSP neoantigens selected through prediction algorithms have been clinically evaluated in LS carriers and proven safe and immunogenic. Preclinically analogous FSP vaccines have been shown to elicit FSP-directed immune responses and exert tumor-preventive efficacy in murine models of LS. While the immunopreventive efficacy of "off-the-shelf" vaccines consisting of commonly recurring FSP antigens is currently investigated in LS clinical trials, the feasibility and utility of personalized FSP vaccines with individual HLA-restricted epitopes are being explored for more precise targeting. Here, we discuss recent advances in precision cancer immunoprevention approaches, emerging enabling technologies, research gaps, and implementation barriers toward clinical translation of risk-tailored prevention strategies for LS carriers. We will also discuss the feasibility and practicality of next-generation cancer vaccines that are based on personalized immunogenic epitopes for precision cancer immunoprevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shizuko Sei
- Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD, United States
- *Correspondence: Shizuko Sei, ; Steven M. Lipkin, ; Matthias Kloor,
| | - Aysel Ahadova
- Department of Applied Tumor Biology, Institute of Pathology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
- Clinical Cooperation Unit Applied Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Derin B. Keskin
- Translational Immunogenomics Laboratory, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, United States
- Broad Institute of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, United States
- Department of Computer Science, Metropolitan College, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Section for Bioinformatics, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Lena Bohaumilitzky
- Department of Applied Tumor Biology, Institute of Pathology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
- Clinical Cooperation Unit Applied Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Johannes Gebert
- Department of Applied Tumor Biology, Institute of Pathology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
- Clinical Cooperation Unit Applied Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Magnus von Knebel Doeberitz
- Department of Applied Tumor Biology, Institute of Pathology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
- Clinical Cooperation Unit Applied Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Steven M. Lipkin
- Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States
- *Correspondence: Shizuko Sei, ; Steven M. Lipkin, ; Matthias Kloor,
| | - Matthias Kloor
- Department of Applied Tumor Biology, Institute of Pathology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
- Clinical Cooperation Unit Applied Tumor Biology, German Cancer Research Center Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
- *Correspondence: Shizuko Sei, ; Steven M. Lipkin, ; Matthias Kloor,
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Daniel S, Kis Z, Kontoravdi C, Shah N. Quality by Design for enabling RNA platform production processes. Trends Biotechnol 2022; 40:1213-1228. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 03/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
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