BACKGROUND: L-asparaginase (ASNase) is an important biopharmaceutical used to treat the acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and lymphosarcoma. Considering its main use in cancer therapy, the most important request for ASNase production is the need for a highly pure biopharmaceutical obtained in the final of the downstream process, which is considered as the crucial step in its production. RESULTS: This work proposes the use of polymer-salt aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) based on polyethylene glycol and citrate buffer, with ionic liquids (ILs) as adjuvants, combined with the permeabilization of cell membrane using n-dodecaneand glycine for the in situ purification of periplasmatic ASNase from Escherichia coli cells. The process proposed was optimized (polymer molecular weight, pH, tie-line length/mixture point, presence, nature and concentration of the adjuvant). The results show that ASNase partitions mostly to the PEG-rich phase, due to hydrophobic interactions between both PEG and enzyme. Remarkably, the addition of 5 wt% of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate [C 4 mim][CH 3 SO 3 ] as adjuvant lead to high recoveries [87.94 ± 0.03 (%)], purification factors (20.09 ± 0.35), and a final specific activity SA = 3.61 ± 0.38 U mg -1 protein, from a crude enzyme extract with a SA = 0.18 ± 0.05 U mg -1 protein. Moreover, better results were achieved when a prepurification step consisting of an ammonium sulfate precipitation was combined with the optimized ATPS, achieving an increased SA = 22.01 ± 1.36 U mg -1 protein and PF = 173.8. CONCLUSIONS: A novel integrated downstream process was successfully implemented for the in situ purification of ASNase from fermentation broth. Tie-lines (TLs) determined for the polymer-salt ATPSBefore the purification assays, tie-lines (TLs) for the polymer-salt ATPS were determined. The ternary phase diagram of wileyonlinelibrary.com/jctb

The covalent attachment of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to therapeutical proteins is an important route to develop biobetters for biomedical, biotech and pharmaceutical industries. PEG conjugation can shield antigenic epitopes of the protein, reduce degradation by proteolytic enzymes, enhance long-term stability and maintain or even improve pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics characteristics of the protein drug. Nonetheless, correct information in terms of the PEGylation process from reaction to downstream processing is of paramount importance for the industrial application and processing scale-up. In this review we present and discuss the main steps in protein PEGylation, namely: PEGylation reaction, separation of the products and final characterization of structure and activity of the resulting species. These steps are not trivial tasks, reason why bioprocessing operations based on PEGylated proteins relies on the use of analytical tools according to the specific pharmaceutical conjugate that is being developed. Therefore, the appropriate selection of the technical and analytical methods may ensure success in implementing a feasible industrial process.

L-asparaginase (ASNase) from Escherichia coli is currently used in some countries in its PEGylated form (ONCASPAR, pegaspargase) to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). PEGylation refers to the covalent attachment of poly(ethylene) glycol to the protein drug and it not only reduces the immune system activation but also decreases degradation by plasmatic proteases. However, pegaspargase is randomly PEGylated and, consequently, with a high degree of polydispersity in its final formulation. In this work we developed a site-specific N-terminus PEGylation protocol for ASNase. The monoPEG-ASNase was purified by anionic followed by size exclusion chromatography to a final purity of 99%. The highest yield of monoPEG-ASNase of 42% was obtained by the protein reaction with methoxy polyethylene glycol-carboxymethyl N -hydroxysuccinimidyl ester (10kDa) in 100 mM PBS at pH 7.5 and PEG:ASNase ratio of 25:1. The monoPEG-ASNase was found to maintain enzymatic stability for more days than ASNase, also was resistant to the plasma proteases like asparaginyl endopeptidase and cathepsin B. Additionally, monoPEG-ASNase was found to be potent against leukemic cell lines (MOLT-4 and REH) in vitro like polyPEG-ASNase. monoPEG-ASNase demonstrates its potential as a novel option for ALL treatment, being an inventive novelty that maintains the benefits of the current enzyme and solves challenges.

Cytochrome c (Cyt-c), a small mitochondrial electron transport heme protein, has been employed in bioelectrochemical and therapeutic applications. However, its potential as both a biosensor and anticancer drug is significantly impaired due to poor long-term and thermal stability. To overcome these drawbacks, we developed a site-specific PEGylation protocol for Cyt-c. The PEG derivative used was a 5 kDa mPEG-NHS, and a site-directed PEGylation at the lysine amino-acids was performed. The effects of the pH of the reaction media, molar ratio (Cyt-c:mPEG-NHS) and reaction time were evaluated. The best conditions were defined as pH 7, 1:25 Cyt-c:mPEG-NHS and 15 min reaction time, resulting in PEGylation yield of 45% for Cyt-c-PEG-4 and 34% for Cyt-c-PEG-8 (PEGylated cytochrome c with 4 and 8 PEG molecules, respectively). Circular dichroism spectra demonstrated that PEGylation did not cause significant changes to the secondary and tertiary structures of the Cyt-c. The long-term stability of native and PEGylated Cyt-c forms was also investigated in terms of peroxidative activity. The results demonstrated that both Cyt-c-PEG-4 and Cyt-c-PEG-8 were more stable, presenting higher half-life than unPEGylated protein. In particular, Cyt-c-PEG-8 presented great potential for biomedical applications, since it retained 30–40% more residual activity than Cyt-c over 60-days of storage, at both studied temperatures of 4 °C and 25 °C.