Learn how to test viral particle potency in vaccine production and gene therapy

In 2018 there paper published which discussed how to optimize viral proteins ratios during production of an adeno associated virus (rAAV) (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41434-018-0034-7.pdf).  An important factor was the ratio of the capsid viral proteins (VP1, 2 and 3) and it was shown that as the amount of VP3 increased the potency of the virus dropped. The paper used Gel Electrophoresis to study the protein ratios. 

However, Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) has been used in Biopharma as an automated and robust replacement for gel electrophoresis for years. So recently colleagues in California used CE to study viral proteins and they successfully analysed rAAV samples. Due to the low protein levels the team labelled the proteins and detected them by Laser Induced fluorescence (LIF) an example of which is shown below. 

This provided several great benefits over gel electrophoresis and UV based detection systems including:

• Increased sensitivity;
• A reduced baseline simplifying integration;
• A robust and reproducible method with low CVs;
• Excellent resolution which easily separating the 3 viral proteins.

Recently I took this method and adapted it for influenza samples. I shortened the capillary to increase the throughput and used it to successfully profile influenza viral proteins. It showed just how easy this method could be transferred to analyse other types of viruses. 

If you would like to have more information on the method as well as others using CE in gene therapy please go to this site: https://sciex.li/ymnpj9

Keep Safe Everyone