Stabilizing proteins at high concentration is of broad interest in drug delivery, for treatment of cancer and many other diseases. Herein, we create highly concentrated antibody dispersions (up to 260 mg/mL) comprising dense equilibrium nanoclusters of protein (monoclonal antibody 1B7, polyclonal sheep immunoglobulin G, and bovine serum albumin) molecules which, upon dilution in vitro or administration in vivo, remain conformationally stable and biologically active. The extremely concentrated environment within the nanoclusters (∼700 mg/mL) provides conformational stability to the protein through a novel self-crowding mechanism, as shown by computer simulation, while the primarily repulsive nanocluster interactions result in colloidally stable, transparent dispersions. The nanoclusters are formed by adding trehalose as a cosolute which strengthens the short-ranged attraction between protein molecules. The protein cluster diameter was reversibly tuned from 50 to 300 nm by balancing short-ranged attraction against long-ranged electrostatic repulsion of weakly charged protein at a pH near the isoelectric point. This behavior is described semiquantitatively with a free energy model which includes the fractal dimension of the clusters. Upon dilution of the dispersion in vitro, the clusters rapidly dissociated into fully active protein monomers as shown with biophysical analysis (SEC, DLS, CD, and SDS-PAGE) and sensitive biological assays. Since the concept of forming nanoclusters by tuning colloid interactions is shown to be general, it is likely applicable to a variety of biological therapeutics, mitigating the need to engineer protein stability through amino acid modification. In vivo subcutaneous injection into mice results in indistinguishable pharmacokinetics versus a standard antibody solution. Stable protein dispersions with low viscosities may potentially enable patient self-administration by subcutaneous injection of antibody therapeutics being discovered and developed.
Proline demonstrated greater efficacy for improving mAb viscosity and stability in contrast to glycine and trehalose due to its amphipathic structure and partial charge on the pyrrolidine side chain. These properties likely allow proline to screen the attractive electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions that promote self-association and high viscosities. Binary proline-histidine formulations also demonstrated greater viscosity reduction effects than histidine alone at the same total co-solute concentration, while maintaining a lower total solution osmolarity.
To further advance a subcutaneous injection of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) at elevated concentrations, novel concepts are needed to lower the viscosity. The addition of high concentrations of cosolutes, namely, arginine glutamate (Arg• Glu) or Arg•HCl, reduced the viscosity of a ∼250 mg/mL mAb solution up to 6-fold. With Arg•Glu, the viscosity of the mAb solution was reduced to 30 cP and for a polyclonal sheep IgG solution to 17 cP both at ∼250 mg/mL. Viscosities went through a maximum at the mAb isoelectric point for solutions with Arg•Glu or Arg• HCl. In contrast the viscosity was only weakly affected by NaCl or the preferentially excluded molecule trehalose. The large viscosity reduction from Arg may be attributed to direct binding to the mAb, resulting in suppression of both hydrophobic and local anisotropic electrostatic attraction. Aggregate formation was negligible for high cosolute mAb solutions as demonstrated by SEC even after 8 weeks of 25 °C storage.
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