Characterisation of recombinant factor IX before and after GlycoPEGylation

July 30, 2020

Title

Characterisation of recombinant factor IX before and after GlycoPEGylation

Author

Finn Stausholm Nielsen, Anette Skammelsen Schmidt, Anne Kroll Kristensen, Anders Dybdal Nielsen, Brian Kåre Kristensen, Lisbeth Palm

Year

2020

Journal

International Journal of Pharmaceutics

Abstract

The effect of the GlycoPEGylation process used for prolonging the half-life of recombinant factor IX (rFIX) has no impact on the primary and higher order structure of activated factor IX. Characterisation work performed on recombinant factor IX and on the GlycoPEGylated form of rFIX (N9-GP), confirm that the primary structure as well as the post translational modifications (PTMs) (disulphide bonds, γ-carboxylation, β-hydroxylation, sulphation and O- and N-linked glycan structures) were comparable for rFIX and N9-GP. Three O-linked glycan sites were identified in the activation peptide (Thr159, Thr163 and Thr169), where Thr163 has not been reported previously. For N9-GP, the mono GlycoPEGylation is directed toward one of the two N-linked glycans present at Asn157 and Asn167 in the activation peptide in a one to one ratio. Spectroscopic techniques, such as far and near UV Circular Dichroism studies show comparable secondary and tertiary structures of rFIX and N9-GP. The thermally induced unfolding of rFIX and N9-GP shows that the unfolding temperature is approximately 1°C higher for N9-GP than that of the rFIX. Furthermore, the pH dependent degradation was reduced due to the GlycoPEGylation of rFIX.

Instrument

J-810

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Tertiary structure, Secondary structure, Chemical stability, Pharmaceutical, Biochemistry