Process for production of purified recombinant cholera toxin B (rCTB) and formulation thereon

Abstract

The present invention relates to a novel process of production of purified recombinant cholera toxin B (rCTB) which provides protection against diarrhea caused by various bacteria such as Vibrio cholerae and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). More particularly, the present invention relates to a process of production of rCTB with significantly higher yield and higher purity. The present invention also relates to a vaccine formulation having synergistic protection against Vibrio cholerae and cross protection against ETEC.

Claims

1. A novel process for producing purified recombinant cholera toxin B (rCTB) from Vibrio cholerae and formulating the purified rCtB to obtain a novel vaccine formulation, said process comprising the steps of fermentating an rCTB producing Vibrio cholerae strain to obtain a fermented culture; heat inactivating the fermented culture to obtain a harvest of partially purified rCTB; purifying said harvest to obtain purified rCTB; and formulating the purified rCTB to produce the novel vaccine formulation, wherein said fermented culture is subjected to a step of heat inactivating at a temperature range of 65° C.±5° C. for 30±15 mins, followed by centrifugation to pellet out inactivated cells and denatured contaminating proteins; wherein the post centrifugation supernatant contains more than 70% pure rCTB, and wherein this partially purified rCTB is further purified by precipitation and tangential flow filtration to yield more than 90-95% pure rCTB.

2. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein said yields are in the range of 1.5-2.5 gm/litre and purity of the purified, rCTB is higher than 95% (>95%).

3. The process as claimed in claim 1 wherein said fermentation step comprises of following steps: (a) inoculating an rCTB producing Vibrio cholerae strain into rCTB production media in a fermenter at predefined conditions; (b) running the fermenter at a predetermined pH and a predetermined temperature for a predetermined duration of time to obtain the fermented culture.

4. The process as claimed in claim 3 wherein said predefined conditions include addition of feed containing 1M glucose to the fermenter media.

5. The process as claimed in claim 3 wherein said predetermined pH is in the range of 7.2-7.5, said predetermined temperature is in the range of 35−37° C., and said predetermined duration of time ranges from 18-22 hrs.

6. A novel process for producing purified recombinant cholera toxin B (rCTB) from Vibrio cholerae and formulating the purified rCtB to obtain a novel vaccine formulation, said process comprising the steps of fermentating an rCTB producing Vibrio cholerae strain to obtain a fermented culture; heat inactivating the fermented culture to obtain a harvest of partially purified rCTB; purifying said harvest to obtain purified rCTB; and formulating the purified rCTB to produce the novel vaccine formulation, wherein the purifying step is performed without chromatography, wherein said fermented culture is subjected to a step of heat inactivating at a temperature range of 65° C.±5° C. for 30±15 mins, followed by centrifugation to pellet out inactivated cells and denatured contaminating proteins; wherein the post centrifugation supernatant contains more than 70% pure rCTB, and wherein this partially purified rCTB is further purified by precipitation and tangential flow filtration to yield more than 90-95% pure rCTB.

7. The process as claimed in claim 6 wherein said yields are in the range of 1.5-2.5 gm/litre and purity of the purified, rCTB is higher than 95% (>95%).

8. The process as claimed in claim 6 wherein said fermentation step comprises of following steps: (c) inoculating an rCTB producing Vibrio cholerae strain into rCTB production media in a fermenter at predefined conditions; (d) running the fermenter at a predetermined pH and a predetermined temperature for a predetermined duration of time to obtain the fermented culture.

9. The process as claimed in claim 8 wherein said predefined conditions include addition of feed containing 1M glucose to the fermenter media.

10. The process as claimed in claim 8 wherein said predetermined pH is in the range of 7.2-7.5, said predetermined temperature is in the range of 35−37° C., and said predetermined duration of time ranges from 18-22 hrs.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

(1) FIG. 1: Growth curve of the strain MS1012 during fermentation.

(2) FIG. 2: Differential scanning calorimetry (DCS) of rCTB.

(3) FIG. 3: HPLC Profile of purified rCTB.

(4) FIG. 4: SDS PAGE of boiled rCTB samples in different stages of purification

(5) FIG. 5: (A) SDS-PAGE of boiled and un-boiled samples of rCTB. (B) Western blot of rCTB.

(6) FIG. 6: Densitometry results done for quantitation of rCTB.

(7) FIG. 7: SDS PAGE for Consistency runs of rCTB fermentation and purification batches

(8) FIG. 8: Schematic diagram for fermentation and purification

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(9) Accordingly, the present invention relates to a process for production of recombinant cholera toxin B which gives a high yield in the range of 1.5-2.5 gm/Litre with >95% purity of rCTB. A recombinant Vibrio cholerae strain MS1012, which overexpresses the rCTB, was developed by Gotovax AB, Sweden. Said strain was received by Hilleman Labs as part of collaboration between Gotovax AB, Sweden and MSD Wellcome Trust Hilleman Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. Process development, purification, quantitation and characterization of rCTB from said strain have been performed at Hilleman Labs.

(10) Before the preferred embodiment of the present invention is described, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the particular materials described, as they may vary. It is also understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing the particular embodiment only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

(11) It must be noted that as used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

(12) The selected recombinant Vibrio cholerae strain MS1012, which overexpresses the rCTB, is cultured on predefined media and incubated overnight at predefined conditions. The said selected strain is then subjected to fermentation for 18-22 hours while maintaining the pH in the range of 7.2 to 7.5 and temperature is in the range of 35 deg C. to 37 deg C. in presence of glucose feed followed by heating the fermented culture to high temperature in the range of 60° C. to 70° C. for 30 mins.

(13) The resultant fermented culture is then subjected to centrifugation to remove the inactivated cells and denatured proteins.

(14) The resultant supernatant is then subjected to ultrafiltration. The filtrate so obtained is ultrafiltered using 500 Kda ultrafiltration membrane. The retentate is discarded and permeate is collected. Permeate so obtained is subjected to acid precipitation in presence of sodium hexametaphosphate. The precipitate obtained is subjected to centrifugation. The supernatant is discarded and the pellets so formed is collected and dissolved in buffer solution, preferably phosphate buffer with pH 7.4. The resultant pellet buffer solution is further subjected to ultrafiltration using 10 Kda membrane to remove media components. The retentate is collected and filter sterilized by 0.22 μm membrane. The resultant purified and sterilized rCTB is subjected to characterization and quantitation of rCTB.

(15) The purity of rCTB is confirmed by HPLC and SDS-PAGE on Novex Tris-Glycine Gels 14%. The HPLC profile (FIG. 3) confirms more than 95% purity.

(16) Further characterization of rCTB is performed by western blot using LT39 monoclonal antibody. Quantitation of rCTB is performed by GM1 ELISA. Both the ELISA and SDS-PAGE densitometry results corroborated each other. The overall yield of rCTB is 1.5 to 2.5 gm/Litre.

(17) After achieving the desired purity and yield, the purified and filter sterilised rCTB is subjected to the formulation step.

(18) The purified rCTB is mixed with inactivated whole cell O1 Vibrio cholerae strain naturally isolated with either Ogawa Inaba serotype or recornbinantly produced Hikojima strain which co-expresses Ogawa and Inaba to give 1 mg rCTB per 1.5 ml inactivated Vibrio cholerae bacteria suspension. The resulting suspension is freeze-dried in vial or tray in the presence of sucrose. Freeze drying cycle is 28 hrs. The shelf temperature is maintained in the range of 30° C. to 50° C., while maintaining the pressure control simultaneously. Freeze dried material is transferred from tray to air tight container in nitrogen chamber and stored at 4° C. until usage.

(19) The resultant freeze dried material can be formulated into the desired dosage form, more preferably tablets. The rCTB is combined with killed whole cell Vibrio cholerae and formulated as tablets enteric coated with a protective acid resistant polymer that dissolves and releases rCTB & inactivated whole cell Vibrio cholerae specifically in less acidic regions of the GI tract (small intestine). The enteric coating allows the release the rCTB in the small intestine while protecting from the stomach acid environment irrespective of fed or fasting state. The formulation is designed and packaged and marketed in a solid dosage form in blister/strip packing, for travellers or for subjects in cholera endemic or epidemic area above 5 years of age.

(20) Therefore, the present invention provides a significant high yield along with high purity. The process is cost effective as it reduces the total time and avoids use of expensive chromatography matrix required to purify the rCTB. The present invention also provides a novel vaccine formulation in dosage form preferably solid dosage form, more preferably in the form of the tablets, providing cross protection against ETEC and synergistic effect against Vibrio cholera. A schematic diagram for fermentation and purification is as shown in FIG. 8.

(21) The above detailed description of process is illustrated by non-limiting examples:

Example 1: Fermentation and Purification of Recombinant Cholera Toxin B (rCTB)

(22) MS 1012 strain is revived from working seed lot on 1.5% agar plates of media like Luria Bertini, MS medium (Casamino acids, 20 gm; Sucrose, 2.5 gm; Na2HPO4.2H2O, 6.27 gm; K2HPO4, 5 gm; NH4Cl, 1 gm; Na2SO4, 0.089 gm; MgCl2.6H2O, 42 mg; MnCl2.4H2O, 4 mg; FeCl3.61H2O, 5 mg), VCG media (Casamino acids, 30 gm; Yeast Extract, MgSO4.7H2O, 0.02 gm; L-Tryptophan, 0.05 gm; KH2PO4, 0.13 gm; Na2HPO4.2H2O, 0.87 gm; Sucrose, 3.4 gm), rCTB production media (Casamino acids, 30 gm; Sucrose, 2.5 gm; Na2HPO4.2H2O, 6.27 gm; K2HPO4, 5 gm; NH4Cl, 1 gm; Na2SO4, 0.089 gm; MgCl2.6H2O, 42 mg; MnCl2.4H2O, 4 mg; FeCl3.6H2O, 5 mg) etc and incubated overnight at 37° C.

(23) From this plate, 3 colonies are transferred into 35 ml of media like Luria Bertini, MS medium, VCG media, rCTB production media etc and the cultures are grown at 37° C. with shaking (180 rpm) up to an OD600 from 0.9-1.5/ml or mid-log phase. 35 ml of this culture is used to inoculate 2.5 litre of rCTB production medium containing Casamino acids, 30 gm; Sucrose, 2.5 gm; Na2HPO4.2H2O, 6.27 gm; K2HPO4, 5 gm; NH4Cl, 1 gm; Na2SO4, 0.089 gm; MgCl2.6H2O, 42 mg; MnCl2.4H2O, 4 mg; FeCl3.6H2O, 5 mg; in a 5 litre fermenter. pH of the fermenter is maintained in the range of 7.2±1 to 7.4±1, temperature at 37° C. aeration of 2 reactor volumes/min, stirring at 600 rpm and a feed containing 1M glucose & rCTB production media is given at a feed rate of 0.3 ml/min after 5 hrs of fermentation when pO2 drops less than 30%. The fermentation culture of strain MS1012 reached an OD600 of 8-10 in 10-12 hrs (FIG. 1). Antifoam 204 (Sigma) diluted to 30% in water is used to control foaming. The culture is aborted after 20 hrs and the temperature of the fermenter is increased to 65° C. for 30 mins to precipitate the unwanted bacterial proteins. rCTB is resistant to heat denaturation till 74° C. and therefore does not get precipitated (DSC, FIG. 2) The heat treated fermented culture is centrifuged at 8000 rpm at room temperature for 90 mins. The debris is discarded and supernatant is collected which is then subjected to 500 Kda tangential flow filtration (TFF), retentate is discarded and the permeate is collected. Permeate is subjected to acid precipitation using 6M HCl followed by 3M HCl till the p1-1 reaches 4.5, in the presence of sodium hexametaphosphate at a concentration of 2.5 gm/lt. This acid treated 500 Kda permeate is centrifuged at 8000 rpm at 2-8° C. for 60 min. Supernatant is discarded and the pellet is dissolved in 500-600 ml of 20 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.4 which is then subjected to 5×10 Kda TEE to remove the sodium hexametaphosphate and media components from the pellet. The retentate is collected, filtered and then sterilized by 0.22 micron filter.

(24) This is the purified and sterilized rCTB. The fermentation and purification process is performed as shown in the schematic diagram as given above. Three consistency runs for rCTB fermentation and purification are done by the process described above.

Example 2: Purity, Characterization & Quantitation of Recombinant Cholera Toxin B

(25) The purity of rCTB is confirmed by HPLC and SDS-PAGE. Samples are analysed by HPLC-SEC on a TSKgel 5000 PWXL (7.8×300 mm, particle size 7 μm, TOSOH) and TSKgel 4000 PWXL (7.8×300 mm, particle size 7 μm, TOSOH) in series with TSKgel PWXL guard column (6.0×40 mm, TOSOH). The mobile phase is 0.1 M NaNo3, pH 7.2, at the flow rate of 1.0 ml/min in isocratic mode for 30 min. Void and total column volume are determined with dextran, MW 50, 00,000-400, 00,000 (HIMEDIA) and deuterium oxide (D2O, Merck), respectively. Protein peaks are detected at 280 nm. The HPLC profile (FIG. 3) showed that this purification process gave us >95% pure rCTB.

(26) The purified rCTB is also checked by SDS-PAGE on Novex Tris-Glycine Gels 14% and detection of the bands is done using Gel Doc Imager (FIGS. 5A & B). The gel clearly shows presence of only one major band at 12 Kda (FIG. 5B). The results of rCTB purity are completely in agreement with the EMEA specifications as shown in Table 1 for rCTB below.

(27) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 EMEA specifications for recombinant cholera toxin Test attribute Test method Specification Physical Visual inspection Clear, colourless to appearance weakly yellow solution. Some particles may occur. Identification Ouchterlony Immunological identity immunoelectro- with rCTB and CTB phoresis pH Potentiometry 7.0-7.6 Antigen Mancini >1 mg rCTB/ml concentration Protein content Kjeldahl >1 mg protein/ml Antigenic Antigen content/ NLT 0.8 mg rCTB/mg protein purity protein content Purity RP-HPLC <10% unrelated proteins Purity SDS-PAGE Not more than 2 bands visible; one major at 12 kD and one minor if present at 23 kD Purity SE-HPLC Area of pentamer peak >90% of integrated area. Sterility Ph Eur Membrane Sterile filtration

(28) Characterization of rCTB is done by western blot using LT39 monoclonal antibody at a dilution of 1:100 dilution and Goat anti-mouse IgG-HRP at a dilution of 1:2000. For the western blot, both boiled and un-boiled samples are run in SDS-PAGE. Boiling breaks, the 60 Kda pentamer rCTB into 12 Kda monomers. As the western blot antibody recognizes only pentamer, only the band for pentamer at 60 KDa in the western blot is observed and no band for the monomer (FIG. 5 (B))

(29) Quantitation of rCTB is done by GM1 ELISA as described earlier [Identification of Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin by means of a ganglioside immunosorbent assay (GM1-ELISA) procedure. Curr. Microbio. 1978; 1: 19-23]. Briefly, 0.3 nmol/ml of GM1 is coated on ELISA plate. Three fold dilutions of samples are made. Purified CTB at a concentration of 0.5 ug/ml, is used as a reference. LT39 monoclonal antibody is used as primary antibody at a dilution of 1:100 dilutions. Goat anti-mouse IgG-HRP is used as a secondary antibody at a dilution of 1:4000. Quantitation of rCTB is also done by densitometry, the result of which is shown in FIG. 6. Both the ELISA and densitometry results corroborated each other. The overall yield of rCTB is 1.5 to 2.5 gm/Litre. In the three consistency runs the yield of rCTB is 2 gm/L, 1.7 gm/L and 2.25 gm/L (FIG. 7)

Example 3: Formulation and Target Product Profile (TPP)

(30) Formulations of formalin-killed whole cell Vibrio cholerae bacteria and rCTB (1 mg per 1.5 ml formalin-killed Vibrio cholerae bacteria) are freeze-dried in the presence of Sucrose (2.5 mg/ml). Freeze drying cycle is 28 hrs. The shelf temperature is set to 40° C. and the pressure control to 922 mbar. Freeze dried material is transferred from tray to air tight container in nitrogen chamber and stored at 4° C. until usage. The TPP of this formulation is tablet. One tablet of vaccine contained an active pharmaceutical compound of heat-killed whole cells of Vibrio cholerae and rCTB (100-150 mg per tablet). The excipients used in tablet are micro crystalline cellulose (25%-30%), Starch (25%-30%), Mg stearate (0.5%-0.7%), colloidal silicone dioxide (0.5%-1%). Mixture of all ingredients is directly compressed in a tablet press. Tablets are seal coated with OPA dry (3-5%) and finally enteric coated with EUDRAGITL30D55/Acryl-EZEII (8-12%)(a water dispersible enteric film coating for solid dosage forms such as tablets available from Colorcon North America and other outlets).