A comprehensive analysis of photodegradation products revealed a variety of novel photo-products, including cross-links, originating from disulfide degradation. The mechanisms of product formation are discussed.

No abstract

Keywords:intradermal subcutaneous therapeutic proteins PBPK modeling reactive oxygen species proteolysis oxidation lymphatic system a b s t r a c tThe intradermal (ID) and subcutaneous (SC) routes are commonly used for therapeutic proteins (TPs) and vaccines; however, the bioavailability of TPs is typically less than small molecule drugs given via the same routes. Proteolytic enzymes in the dermal, SC, and lymphatic tissues may be responsible for the loss of TPs. In addition, the TPs may be exposed to reactive oxygen species generated in the SC tissue and the lymphatic system in response to injection-related trauma and impurities within the formulation. The reactive oxygen species can oxidize TPs to alter their efficacy and immunogenicity potential. Mechanistic understandings of the dominant proteolysis and oxidative routes are useful in the drug discovery process, formulation development, and to assess the potential for immunogenicity and altered pharmacokinetics (PK). Furthermore, in vitro tools representing the ID or SC and lymphatic system can be used to evaluate the extent of proteolysis of the TPs after the injection and before systemic entry. The in vitro clearance data may be included in physiologically based pharmacokinetic models for improved PK predictions. In this review, we have summarized various physiological factors responsible for proteolysis and oxidation of TPs after ID and SC administration.

Our rapid fluorescence based screening allows for the fast comparison of the stability of multiple formulations.

In recent years protein therapeutics have seen increasing use in the therapeutic arena. As with traditional small molecule drug substances, one is obligated to ensure purity and stability of the various dosage forms. With these higher molecular weight therapeutics a common approach for analytical characterization is enzymatic digestion followed by gradient elution liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry detection to create a peptide map (bottom-up protein analysis). Due to the difficult to separate mixtures frequently encountered, there is the need for advanced chromatographic systems featuring increased resolution and/or peak capacity that can be operated in the gradient elution format. Presently we describe an extreme ultra-pressure liquid chromatography (XUPLC) system that has been implemented as an in-house add-on to a commercial ultra-pressure chromatography system. This add-on allows operation at the 38 Kspi range, accommodates the use of capillary columns in excess of one meter packed with sub-2 μm particles and can be operated in the gradient elution format. To evaluate the utility of this system, rat growth hormone was used as a model protein and was exposed to light (λ 254 nm) to create a stress environment. When enzymatic digests of control and stressed protein were analyzed with the XUPLC system using MS detection, greater than 92% peptide coverage was achieved, including the identification some peptides where pre-oxidation of Met residues had occurred, as well as chemistry specifically related to the photolysis of protein disulfide linkages. When the same samples were analyzed by commercial UPLC and compared to the XUPLC results, the utility of the increased peak capacity available with the XUPLC was apparent as previously co-eluting peaks were now well resolved. In particular one specific degradation route was identified where a pair of isobaric cis/trans diastereomerically related peptides were well resolved by XUPLC while they were unresolved by UPLC. Clearly the use of this system operating at the higher pressure regime with long capillary columns is and will be useful in continued investigations of protein stability, especially in cases where only subtle differences in the amino acid residues have occurred during degradation.