Oncolytic virus purification with periodic counter-current chromatography.

Virus-based biologicals are one of the most promising biopharmaceuticals of the 21st century medicine and play a significant role in the development of innovative therapeutic, prophylactic and clinical applications. Oncolytic virus manufacturing scale can range from 5L in research and development up to 50L for clinical studies and reach hundreds of liters for commercial scale. The inherent productivity and high integration potential of periodic counter-current chromatography offer a transversal solution to decrease equipment footprint and the reduction of several non-value-added unit operations. We report on the design of an efficient periodic counter-current chromatography process applied to the intermediate purification of oncolytic adenovirus. The developed ion-exchange chromatographic purification method was carried out using a four-column setup for three different scenarios: i) variation in the feedstock, ii) potential of use of a post-load washing step to improve virus recovery and, iii) stability during extended operation. Obtained virus recoveries (57 to 86%) and impurity reductions (>80% DNA, and > 70% total protein) match or overcome batch purification. Regarding process stability and automation, our results show that not only the dynamic control strategy used is able to suppress perturbations in the sample inlet but also allows for unattended operation in the case of ion exchange capture. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.