Protein modification during anti-viral heat-treatment bioprocessing of factor VIII concentrates, factor IX concentrates, and model proteins in the presence of sucrose.

To ensure the optimal safety of plasma derived and new generation recombinant proteins, heat treatment is customarily applied in the manufacturing of such biopharmaceuticals as a means of viral inactivation. In subjecting proteins to anti-viral heat-treatment it is necessary to use high concentrations of thermostabilizing excipients to prevent protein damage, and it is therefore imperative that the correct balance between bioprocessing conditions, maintenance of protein integrity and virus kill is found. In this study we have utilized model proteins (lysozyme, fetuin, and human serum albumin) and plasma-derived therapeutic proteins (factor VIII and factor IX) to investigate the protein modifications that occur during anti-viral heat treatment. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between bioprocessing conditions and the type and extent of protein modification under a variety of industrially relevant wet and lyophilized heat treatments using sucrose as a thermostabilizing agent. Heat treatment led to the formation of disulfide crosslinks and aggregates in proteins containing free cysteine residues. Terminal oligosaccharide sialic acid residues were hydrolyzed from the glycan moieties of glycoproteins during anti-viral heat treatment. Heat treatment promoted sucrose hydrolysis to yield glucose and fructose, leading, in turn, to the glycation of lysine amino groups in those proteins containing di-lysine motifs. During extended hear treatments, 1,2-dicarbonyl type advanced glycation end-products were also formed. Glycation-type modifications were more prevalent in wet heat-treated protein formulations.