The development of stable protein formulations: a close look at protein aggregation, deamidation, and oxidation

The biochemical literature has been surveyed to present an overview of the three most common protein degradation pathways: protein aggregation, deamidation, and oxidation. The mechanisms for each of these degradation routes are discussed with particular attention given to the effect of formulation conditions such as pH, ionic strength, temperature, and buffer composition. Strategies to reduce protein degradation are also discussed. These strategies are based on an understanding of the degradation mechanisms and the effect of changes in the storage conditions and formulation components on the degradation. The effects of each of the degradation routes on pharmaceutically relevant properties such as biological activity, metabolic half-life, and immunogenicity are summarized. Predicting a priori the alteration of pharmaceutical properties caused by the three degradation routes is difficult, and must be determined on a case-by-case basis for each protein. The difficulty in predicting the effect of degradation and analyzing the temperature dependence of reaction rates in proteins results in longer development times for protein formulations than for small molecule formulations. Although the use of accelerated stability to predict protein shelf life is difficult, conditions are discussed whereby the Arrhenius equation can be used to shorten formulation development time.