Amino-Acid-Incorporating Nonionic Surfactants for Stabilization of Protein Pharmaceuticals

Abstract

With the rapid development of protein-based pharmaceutical products over the past decade, one of the biggest challenges in product development is maintaining the structural stability of proteins during purification, processing, and storage. In this work, the design of a new class of surfactants, polyether-modified N-acyl amino acids, is presented. One surfactant from this series, containing a phenylalanine moiety, demonstrated remarkable stabilization against aggregation of several model protein drugs. Dynamic light scattering, size exclusion chromatography, and circular dichroism all show the rate of thermally accelerated protein aggregation slowed. IgG aggregation was reduced by 3-fold compared to polysorbate controls. Testing of Orencia, a prescription biologic drug for rheumatoid arthritis, demonstrated a 36% improvement in monomer retention upon heat-aging.