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Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are promising reagents both for the manufacture of drug substances and for their employment as a drug themselves, but to be approved for utilization, according to FDA recommendations and WHO guidelines, they have to undergo verifications regarding their purity, stability and percentage of aggregates. Moreover, stability tests of lots have to be performed in order to verify molecular size distribution over time and lot-to-lot consistency. Recent works in literature have highlighted the need for suitable, sensitive and reliable complementary analytical techniques for the characterization of mAbs and quantification of aggregates. Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) is the reference technique in the biopharmaceutical industry for its robustness, high performance and simple use; however it presents some limitations especially toward the separation and detection of aggregates with high molecular weight. On the other hand, flow field-flow fractionation (F4) in its miniaturized version (hollow fiber flow field-flow fractionation, HF5) shows comparable performances with interesting additional advantages: a broad size range, gentle separation mechanism with low dilution factor and higher sensitivity. To propose HF5 as a complementary technique for evaluating aggregates’ content in mAbs samples, a comparative study of both SEC and HF5 performances has been made. In this work, SEC and HF5 were coupled with UV and multi-angle light scattering detection and employed first in separating standard samples of proteins mixture used as a sample model. Then, a screening of mobile phases and an evaluation of separation performances was performed on a therapeutic mAbs formulation, demonstrating the complementarities between SEC and HF5 and their possible use as a separative platform approach for the characterization and quality control of protein drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of protein-based pharmaceuticals highlights the need for robust analytical methods to ensure their quality and stability. Among proteins used in pharmaceutical applications, an important and ever increasing role is represented by monoclonal antibodies and large proteins, which are often modified to enhance their activity or stability when used as drugs. The bioactivity and the stability of those proteins are closely related to the maintenance of their complex structure, which however are influenced by many external factors that can cause degradation and/or aggregation. The presence of aggregates in these drugs could reduce their bioactivity and bioavailability, and induce immunogenicity. The choice of the proper analytical method for the analysis of aggregates is fundamental to understand their (size) dimensional range, their amount, and if they are present in the sample as generated by an aggregation or as an artifact due to the method itself. Size exclusion chromatography is one of the most important techniques for the quality control of pharmaceutical proteins; however, its application is limited to relatively low molar mass aggregates. Among the techniques for the size characterization of proteins, field-flow fractionation (FFF) represents a competitive choice because of its soft mechanism due to the absence of a stationary phase and application in a broader size range, from nanometer- to micrometer-sized analytes. In this paper, the microcolumn variant of FFF, the hollow-fiber flow FFF, was online coupled with multi-angle light scattering, and a method for the characterization of aggregates with high reproducibility and low limit of detection was demonstrated employing an avidin derivate as sample model. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]