Recovery of infective virus particles in ion-exchange and hydrophobic interaction monolith chromatography is influenced by particle charge and total-to-infective particle ratio

- Purification recovery of MeV and MuV by IEX is below 20%.
- Recovery of MuV and MeV by HIC is around 60%.
- MuV and MeV chromatography requires large channel columns (6 μm).
- MuV and MeV suspensions exhibit day-to-day heterogeneity.
- HIC recovery of MuV and MeV correlates with total-to-infective particle ratio.

Viral particles are used in medical applications as vaccines or gene therapy vectors. In order to obtain product of high purity, potency and safety for medical use purification of virus particles is a prerequisite, and chromatography is gaining increased attention to meet this aim. Here, we report on the use of ion-exchange and hydrophobic interaction chromatography on monolithic columns for purification of mumps virus (MuV) and measles virus (MeV). Efficiency of the process was monitored by quantification of infective virus particles (by 50% cell culture infective dose assay) and total virus particles, and monitoring of their size (by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis). Ion-exchange chromatography was shown to be inefficient for MuV and best results for MeV were obtained on QA column with recovery around 17%. Purification of MuV and MeV by hydrophobic interaction chromatography resulted in recoveries around 60%. Results showed that columns with small channels (d = 1.4 μm) are not suitable for MuV and MeV, although their size is below 400 nm, whereas columns with large channels (6 μm) showed to be efficient and recoveries independent on the flow rate up to 10 mL/min. Heterogeneity of the virus suspension and its interday variability mostly regarding total-to-infective particle ratio was observed. Interestingly, a trend in recovery depending on the day of the harvest was also observed for both viruses, and it correlated with the total-to-infective particle ratio, indicating influence of the virus sample composition on the chromatography results.