Host cell protein platform assay development for therapeutic mAb bioprocessing using mammalian cells

Background Recombinant therapeutic proteins are usually produced by cell culture technology using genetically modified host cell lines. During the manufacturing process, a mixture of the protein of interest and host cell derived impurities, including host cell proteins (HCPs) and other process related impurities are produced. Those process related impurities will be cleared or minimized though the process by optimization of process purification. Residual HCPs in the final drug substance may affect the quality, safety and efficacy and may result in clinical adverse effects. HCPs are typically quantified using immunoassays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The development and the validation of those assays are really challenging mainly due to the wide variety of possible HCPs in products. Although generic ELISA kits are commercially available to quantify HCPs from different recombinant systems, a process specific assay is required before drug registration and commercialization for biologics. The reagents, polyclonal antibodies and HCP standards, need to be carefully prepared and characterized to ensure a correct quantitation of the HCPs in the final product. Here we describe the first step of the development of a production platformspecific HCP-ELISA assay for UCB’s biopharmaceuticals produced in a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell line, i.e. the production of mock material containing the HCPs using a null cell line. Materials and methods 2L and 80L stirred tank bioreactors (Sartorius) were run for 14 days in a fed-batch mode in a chemically defined medium. Feed was added daily from day 3 onwards. If required, antifoam was added to the bioreactor by manual injections. Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, and temperature were controlled at set points. DO was controlled using a multi-stage aeration cascade via a ring sparger. Viable cell concentration and cell viability were measured using a ViCell cell counter (Beckman Coulter). The osmolality was measured using an osmometer (Advanced Instruments).The off-line pH was measured using a BioProfilepHOx (Nova Biomedical). The glucose, lactate, glutamine and ammonia concentrations were measured with a BioProfile Analyzer 400 (Nova Biomedical). On the day of harvest, the clarification was performed by centrifugation, depth filtration and sterile filtration. Part of the material was further clarified by tangential flow filtration (TFF) on the Uniflux 10 system (GE Life Sciences) using low molecular weight cut-off membranes and concentrated before being diafiltered into an appropriate buffer. The antigens from the mock run were assessed for their total HCP content by 2D DIGE and analyzed by the DeCyderTM 2D 7.2 software.