1
|
Shastry S, Chu W, Barbieri E, Greback-Clarke P, Smith WK, Cummings C, Minzoni A, Pancorbo J, Gilleskie G, Ritola K, Daniele MA, Johnson TF, Menegatti S. Rational design and experimental evaluation of peptide ligands for the purification of adeno-associated viruses via affinity chromatography. Biotechnol J 2024; 19:e2300230. [PMID: 37728197 DOI: 10.1002/biot.202300230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023]
Abstract
Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) have acquired a central role in modern medicine as delivery agents for gene therapies targeting rare diseases. While new AAVs with improved tissue targeting, potency, and safety are being introduced, their biomanufacturing technology is lagging. In particular, the AAV purification pipeline hinges on protein ligands for the affinity-based capture step. While featuring excellent AAV binding capacity and selectivity, these ligands require strong acid (pH <3) elution conditions, which can compromise the product's activity and stability. Additionally, their high cost and limited lifetime has a significant impact on the price tag of AAV-based therapies. Seeking to introduce a more robust and affordable affinity technology, this study introduces a cohort of peptide ligands that (i) mimic the biorecognition activity of the AAV receptor (AAVR) and anti-AAV antibody A20, (ii) enable product elution under near-physiological conditions (pH 6.0), and (iii) grant extended reusability by withstanding multiple regenerations. A20-mimetic CYIHFSGYTNYNPSLKSC and AAVR-mimetic CVIDGSQSTDDDKIC demonstrated excellent capture of serotypes belonging to distinct clones/clades - namely, AAV1, AAV2, AAV5, AAV6, AAV8, and AAV9. This corroborates the in silico models documenting their ability to target regions of the viral capsid that are conserved across all serotypes. CVIDGSQSTDDDKIC-Toyopearl resin features binding capacity (≈1014 vp mL-1 ) and product yields (≈60%-80%) on par with commercial adsorbents, and purifies AAV2 from HEK293 and Sf9 cell lysates with high recovery (up to 78%), reduction of host cell proteins (up to 700-fold), and high transduction activity (up to 65%).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shriarjun Shastry
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Wenning Chu
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Eduardo Barbieri
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Paul Greback-Clarke
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - William K Smith
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Christopher Cummings
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Arianna Minzoni
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Jennifer Pancorbo
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Gary Gilleskie
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Kimberly Ritola
- Neuroscience Center, Brain Initiative Neurotools Vector Core, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
- North Carolina Viral Vector Initiative in Research and Learning (NC-VVIRAL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Michael A Daniele
- North Carolina Viral Vector Initiative in Research and Learning (NC-VVIRAL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Thomas F Johnson
- Department of Biochemical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
| | - Stefano Menegatti
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- North Carolina Viral Vector Initiative in Research and Learning (NC-VVIRAL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- LigaTrap Technologies LLC, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Chu W, Shastry S, Barbieri E, Prodromou R, Greback-Clarke P, Smith W, Moore B, Kilgore R, Cummings C, Pancorbo J, Gilleskie G, Daniele MA, Menegatti S. Peptide ligands for the affinity purification of adeno-associated viruses from HEK 293 cell lysates. Biotechnol Bioeng 2023; 120:2283-2300. [PMID: 37435968 PMCID: PMC10440015 DOI: 10.1002/bit.28495] [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] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 06/15/2023] [Accepted: 06/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023]
Abstract
Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are the vector of choice for delivering gene therapies that can cure inherited and acquired diseases. Clinical research on various AAV serotypes significantly increased in recent years alongside regulatory approvals of AAV-based therapies. The current AAV purification platform hinges on the capture step, for which several affinity resins are commercially available. These adsorbents rely on protein ligands-typically camelid antibodies-that provide high binding capacity and selectivity, but suffer from low biochemical stability and high cost, and impose harsh elution conditions (pH < 3) that can harm the transduction activity of recovered AAVs. Addressing these challenges, this study introduces peptide ligands that selectively capture AAVs and release them under mild conditions (pH = 6.0). The peptide sequences were identified by screening a focused library and modeled in silico against AAV serotypes 2 and 9 (AAV2 and AAV9) to select candidate ligands that target homologous sites at the interface of the VP1-VP2 and VP2-VP3 virion proteins with mild binding strength (KD ~ 10-5 -10- 6 M). Selected peptides were conjugated to Toyopearl resin and evaluated via binding studies against AAV2 and AAV9, demonstrating the ability to target both serotypes with values of dynamic binding capacity (DBC10% > 1013 vp/mL of resin) and product yields (~50%-80%) on par with commercial adsorbents. The peptide-based adsorbents were finally utilized to purify AAV2 from a HEK 293 cell lysate, affording high recovery (50%-80%), 80- to 400-fold reduction of host cell proteins (HCPs), and high transduction activity (up to 80%) of the purified viruses.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wenning Chu
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Shriarjun Shastry
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Eduardo Barbieri
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Raphael Prodromou
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Paul Greback-Clarke
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Will Smith
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Brandyn Moore
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Ryan Kilgore
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Christopher Cummings
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Jennifer Pancorbo
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Gary Gilleskie
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Michael A Daniele
- North Carolina Viral Vector Initiative in Research and Learning (NC-VVIRAL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| | - Stefano Menegatti
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- North Carolina Viral Vector Initiative in Research and Learning (NC-VVIRAL), North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- LigaTrap Technologies LLC, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
| |
Collapse
|