Development of a Cell-based Neutralizing Antibody Assay for Zinpentraxin Alfa: Challenges and Mitigation Strategies

Therapeutic protein drugs can potentially induce immune responses in patients and result in the production of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs), including a subset of ADAs called neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) that might cause loss of efficacy by inhibiting clinical activities of the drug. Herein, we describe the unique challenges encountered during the development of a fit-for-purpose cell-based NAb assay for a new protein modality, zinpentraxin alfa, including our strategies for assay design to overcome various matrix interferences and improve assay drug tolerance. We demonstrated that a typical biotin-drug extraction with acid dissociation (BEAD) approach alone was not sufficient to eliminate matrix interferences in this assay. Instead, the combination of the BEAD and Zeba TM spin size exclusion plate (SEP) was required to achieve the desirable assay performance. We also demonstrated that appropriate acidic buffers were critical in sample pretreatment to improve assay drug tolerance, which not only dissociated the drug/NAb immune complex but also effectively and irreversibly denatured the free drug. The final assay performed well with confirmed assay robustness and suitability for the clinical applications. Graphical abstract