Preparative weak cation-exchange chromatography of monoclonal antibody variants: I. Single-component adsorption

The retention behavior of a monoclonal antibody has been characterized on a weak cation exchanger, Fractogel EMD COO−(s). This new generation of resin materials comprise of a higher mechanical strength compared to softer gel-type matrices while maintaining elevated capacities, resulting in higher productivity and longer lifetimes. These parameters are extremely important when working with large bio-molecules such as proteins, and in particular monoclonal antibodies. In the first part of this work a parameter estimation strategy is presented to fully characterize the retention behavior of a single monoclonal antibody and determine suitable model parameters. Literature correlations were used for the estimation of mass transfer rates. The transport limiting parameter, pore diffusion, was regressed experimentally. Various methods for the adsorption isotherm determination have been applied, their combinations resulting in little experimental effort and accurate predictions of elution profiles. The process has been modelled with a complete pore diffusion model and the agreement between experimental and predicted profiles is good in general. However, a very marked sensitivity to changes in the effective pore diffusion coefficient has been observed. A correlation describing the effect of the separation conditions on the diffusion rate is therefore needed in order to have a fully predictive mathematical model.