Aqueous biphasic systems based on deep eutectic solvents for extraction of biopharmaceuticals in downstream...

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Chemical Engineering
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Biopharmaceutical purification is costly, accounting for up to 80% of production expenses.
• High solvent usage in downstream processing leads to significant energy consumption and environmental concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate deep eutectic solvents (DES) in aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) for scalable and cost-efficient biopharmaceutical purification.
• To reduce the environmental impact associated with traditional purification methods.

Main Methods:

• Preparation and characterization of various tetraalkylammonium-based salt and choline chloride DESs.
• Evaluation of DES-based ABS for extracting gamma-globulins as monoclonal antibody (mAb) surrogates.
• Validation of the system for rituximab (RTX) extraction from phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and cell culture media.

Main Results:

• Achieved high extraction efficiencies for rituximab (RTX) exceeding 87.0% with low relative standard deviations (< 6.4%).
• Demonstrated accurate and repeatable purification performance.
• Successfully extracted RTX directly from cell culture media, showcasing versatility.

Conclusions:

• DES-based ABS present a viable and sustainable alternative for downstream biopharmaceutical purification.
• This approach effectively reduces purification costs and environmental footprint.
• The developed method shows potential for industrial application in mAb purification.