Development of affordable at-line surface plasmon resonance technology for critical quality attribute assessment of complex biologics

表面等离子体共振(SPR)是一种利用光学测量金属表面的折射率来检测分析物与该表面上的受体结合的技术。典型的传感器是基于涂有金膜的玻璃支撑面。然后受体被绑定到金膜上。照射在金膜底面的光线以临界角度反射，并被传感器接收。结合到表面的分子会影响临界角，因此可以测量结合分析物的浓度。作为生产单糖型单抗(MabNet)网络的一部分，Aucoin教授正在研究影响动物细胞培养中产生的单抗的糖基化模式的开发过程。众所周知，糖基化模式会极大地影响抗体与不同靶点结合的能力。他还在开发生产可用于疫苗的病毒和病毒样颗粒的工艺。这两种类型的复杂生物制剂都需要通过它们与其他分子结合的能力来表征。帮助开发负担得起的SPR设备，例如滑铁卢的初创公司Nicoya Lifesciences正在生产的设备，肯定会被证明是一个无价的过程分析工具(PAT)，它将有助于监测重要的治疗性生物分子(即治疗性抗体、病毒和类似病毒的颗粒)的关键质量属性(CQA)。

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a technique that uses optical measurement of the refractive index of a metal surface to detect binding of an analyte to receptors on this surface. A typical sensor is based off a glass support surface coated with a gold film. Receptors are then bound to the gold film. Light shone on the underside of the gold film is reflected at a critical angle and received by a sensor. Molecules binding to the surface affect the critical angle and therefore the concentration of binding analyte can be measured. As part of the network on the Production of Single Glycoform Monoclonal Antibodies (MabNet), Professor Aucoin is looking at developing processes that influence the glycosylation pattern of monoclonal antibodies produced in animal cell culture. The glycosylation pattern is known to influence dramatically the ability of an antibody to bind to different targets. He is also developing processes for the production of viruses and virus-like particles that can be used in vaccines. Both of these types of complex biologics need to be characterized through their ability to bind to other molecules. Helping develop an affordable SPR device such as the one being produced by Nicoya Lifesciences, a Waterloo-based start-up company, will certainly prove to be an invaluable process analytical tool (PAT) which will help in the monitoring of a critical quality attribute (CQA) of important therapeutic biomolecules (namely therapeutic antibodies, viruses and virus-like particles).