posted on 2024-02-23, 14:34authored byBharat Shrimant, Tanmay Kulkarni, Mahmudul Hasan, Charles Arnold, Nazimuddin Khan, Abhishek N. Mondal, Christopher G. Arges
Plasma
protein therapies are used by millions of people across
the globe to treat a litany of diseases and serious medical conditions.
One challenge in the manufacture of plasma protein therapies is the
removal of salt ions (e.g., sodium, phosphate, and chloride) from
the protein solution. The conventional approach to remove salt ions
is the use of diafiltration membranes (e.g., tangential flow filtration)
and ion-exchange chromatography. However, the ion-exchange resins
within the chromatographic column as well as filtration membranes
are subject to fouling by the plasma protein. In this work, we investigate
the membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) as an alternative separation
platform for removing ions from plasma protein solutions with negligible
protein loss. MCDI has been previously deployed for brackish water
desalination, nutrient recovery, mineral recovery, and removal of
pollutants from water. However, this is the first time this technique
has been applied for removing 28% of ions (sodium, chloride, and phosphate)
from human serum albumin solutions with less than 3% protein loss
from the process stream. Furthermore, the MCDI experiments utilized
highly conductive poly(phenylene alkylene)-based ion exchange membranes
(IEMs). These IEMs combined with ionomer-coated nylon meshes in the
spacer channel ameliorate Ohmic resistances in MCDI improving the
energy efficiency. Overall, we envision MCDI as an effective separation
platform in biopharmaceutical manufacturing for deionizing plasma
protein solutions and other pharmaceutical formulations without a
loss of active pharmaceutical ingredients.