Desalting Plasma Protein Solutions by Membrane Capacitive Deionization

Abstract

Plasma protein therapies are used by millions of people across the globe to treat a litany of diseases and serious medical conditions. One challenge in the manufacture of plasma protein therapies is the removal of salt ions (e.g., sodium, phosphate, and chloride) from the protein solution. The conventional approach to remove salt ions is the use of diafiltration membranes (e.g., tangential flow filtration) and ion-exchange chromatography. However, the ion-exchange resins within the chromatographic column as well as filtration membranes are subject to fouling by the plasma protein. In this work, we investigate the membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) as an alternative separation platform for removing ions from plasma protein solutions with negligible protein loss. MCDI has been previously deployed for brackish water desalination, nutrient recovery, mineral recovery, and removal of pollutants from water. However, this is the first time this technique has been applied for removing 28% of ions (sodium, chloride, and phosphate) from human serum albumin solutions with less than 3% protein loss from the process stream. Furthermore, the MCDI experiments utilized highly conductive poly(phenylene alkylene)based ion exchange membranes (IEMs). These IEMs combined with ionomer-coated nylon meshes in the spacer channel ameliorate Ohmic resistances in MCDI improving the energy efficiency. Overall, we envision MCDI as an effective separation platform in biopharmaceutical manufacturing for deionizing plasma protein solutions and other pharmaceutical formulations without a loss of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Selective phosphate removal with manganese oxide composite anion exchange membranes in membrane capacitive deionization

“…Table 1 gives the key characteristics of pristine and Mn2O3 composite AEMs, including water uptake, membrane conductivity, swelling ratio and ionexchange capacity. Both types of AEMs exhibited water uptake values of ~20% and swelling ratio of ~9%, which is acceptable for MCDI and comparable to commercial AEM variants from Fumasep (15% water uptake and 4% swelling ratio) 35 . Furthermore, the Mn2O3 composite https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-t2gks-v2 ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2087-4755 Content not peer-reviewed by ChemRxiv.…”

“…The synthesis of pol(phenyl alkylene) anion exchange ionomers to fabricate pristine AEMs was described in our previous work 35 . This ionomer material was used in the preparation of composite AEMs with manganese oxide particles.…”

Aryl ether-free polymer electrolytes for electrochemical and energy devices

“…Since 2006, AEPs have been also used for membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) for water purification or valuable metal ion recovery. 3,4 In MCDI, a cation exchange membrane (CEM) is attached to the cathode, and an AEM is attached to the anode (Fig. 1c).…”