Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are promising objects for the development of gene therapy products, primarily, due to the possible cause of these diseases (disruption of a gene or several genes), lack of effective therapy, and negative impact on the quality of life of both patients and their families and friends.

The aim of the study was to identify trends and challenges in the development and preclinical and clinical studies of gene therapy products for NDDs and to analyse the international experience of expert assessment of the dossier for Zolgensma®, which received a conditional marketing authorisation.

According to the analysis of the ongoing studies of gene therapy products for NDDs, the following major challenges arise at preclinical and clinical stages. For animal studies, a particular challenge is to select a disease model, a route of administration, and a target for effective gene therapy for polygenic disorders. For clinical trials, problematic aspects are the selection of a control group, the development of inclusion criteria for patients with a genetic variant that is an indication for a gene therapy product and exclusion criteria for patients with antibodies to this gene therapy product, the selection and justifi cation of a safe therapeutic dose since a gene therapy product can be administered to a patient only once, and the complexity of assessing clinical benefi ts of transgene expression in the human body due to the inaccessibility of brain tissue for analysis. Recent years have witnessed a breakthrough in gene therapy with the introduction of Zolgensma® (Novartis) to the world pharmaceutical market to treat children with spinal muscular atrophy type 1. The article analyses the experience of expert assessment of the marketing authorisation dossier for Zolgensma®, which can be used by drug developers bringing new medicines to the market of the Eurasian Economic Union under conditional marketing authorisation, which implies that the benefi ts of immediate patient access to these medicines will exceed the risks associated with incomplete data on their characteristics.

At present, personalised cellular immunotherapy is considered a promising approach to the treatment of malignant neoplasms. The effectiveness of these cellular immunotherapy methods is evaluated in the context of clinical and biological tumour characteristics and the state of the immune system of a particular patient. One of the immunotherapy options for cancer is the development of autologous dendritic cell vaccines.

The aim of this study was to analyse current methodological approaches to the evaluation of the quality, efficacy, and safety of dendritic cell cancer vaccines.

This review describes the functional role of dendritic cells in immune response regulation. The paper presents the results of literature analysis covering current approaches to obtaining dendritic cell vaccines with specific characteristics, quality assessment, studies of the anti-tumour efficacy of cell therapy products, and the experience of conducting non-clinical and clinical studies. The review highlights specific aspects of international experience in the registration and clinical use of cell therapy products. The authors discuss methodological approaches to non-clinical studies of dendritic cell vaccines, which should aim to obtain information to select the dose, route, and mode of administration and to identify immunological markers correlating to the clinical efficacy of cell therapy products. The paper covers international experience in conducting clinical trials of dendritic cell vaccines for various malignant neoplasms. The authors propose a list of quality attributes of human somatic cell-based medicinal products for further clinical use.

Despite their widespread clinical implementation, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy products, including those manufactured by industrial processes, are still not legally available or used in the Russian Federation.

The aim of the study was to describe the current challenges associated with specific aspects of CAR-T manufacturing in the Russian Federation and the potential ways to overcome them.

This article discusses the regulatory, legal, organisational, and methodological challenges of CAR-T manufacturing. It analyses differences in the interpretation of CAR-T therapy products under national and supranational law. According to Russian Federal Law No. 180-FZ “On Biomedical Cell Products” of 23 June 2016, CAR-T therapy products are considered biomedical cell products. However, according to Decision No. 78 of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission “On the Rules of Marketing Authorisation and Assessment of Medicinal Products for Human Use” of 3 November 2016, CAR-T therapy products are considered advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). This article provides a detailed overview of the difficulties in obtaining starting biological materials (i.e. the inability to consider the patient as a donor) and transferring the materials for CAR-T manufacturing (i.e. the inapplicability of national law). In addition, this article describes export aspects specific to biological materials. The authors reckon that CAR-T therapy products should be categorised as ATMPs and that the corresponding active pharmaceutical ingredients, genetically modified autologous lymphocytes, should be defined as starting materials. Therefore, genetically modified autologous lymphocytes should be regulated under the requirements for starting materials for the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients that are set forth in Decision No. 77 of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission “On the Adoption of the Rules of Good Manufacturing Practice of the Eurasian Economic Union” of 3 November 2016. In conclusion, the authors recognise the need for national and supranational law harmonisation. For this task, it is necessary to establish expert groups that will include clinicians, legal experts, and representatives from the relevant authorities and the pharmaceutical industry.

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which are developed to treat many pathologies, including cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases, are one of the fastest growing classes of medicinal products. Given the large number of mAbs in the pipeline and continued interest from pharmaceutical companies, the mAb market is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. To maximise both the therapeutic benefit and the safety of medicinal products in this class, it is essential that their pharmacological properties be carefully characterised and understood.

The aim of the study was to analyse literature data on approaches to studying the pharmacokinetics of mAbs. This review presents data on the main physicochemical and pharmacological properties of mAbs and compares them with small molecules. The article describes the influence of various factors on mAb pharmacokinetics.

For example, such factors include the method of administration, hydrophilicity, and charge of the mAb, individual characteristics of the patient (body weight, plasma albumin levels, genetic characteristics, etc.), and concurrent administration of other medicinal products. The authors evaluated the role of intra- and inter-individual variability of pharmacokinetic parameters. The rapid development of this group of medicinal products and the emergence of new promising molecules are indicative of the need to study the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of mAbs in detail and to maximise both the therapeutic benefit and the safety of the medicinal products in this class.

The development and introduction of new bacteriophage-based medicinal products for human use is an important mission aimed at curbing the spread of infectious diseases caused by multi-resistant pathogens. The current global practice offers two approaches to the production of bacteriophage preparations: a systemic one, with regulatory participation of state control bodies, and a personalised one.

The aim of the study was to analyse the legal and regulatory framework and differences of the mentioned methodological approaches to commercial and personalised production of bacteriophage medicinal products for human use in the Russian Federation and to identify the main stages for a comprehensive approach to the development of such medicinal products with the view of improving the state regulation and control intended to ensure the quality, efficacy, and safety.

The article considers the experience of therapeutic bacteriophage use in Europe, the USA, and Russia, highlighting the main reasons for the termination of commercial bacteriophage production abroad and the success of phage therapy and prophylaxis development in the Soviet Union. Currently, the Russian Federation is the only state in the world that officially implements compendial quality standards for bacteriophage preparations. The article presents the advantages and disadvantages of the systemic and the personalised approaches to the production of bacteriophage preparations and analyses legal and regulatory documents governing it in the Russian Federation. The authors note that despite the relevance of personalised approaches to treatment and prevention of human infectious diseases, the legal grounds for the personalised use of bacteriophages are practically absent both in the Russian Federation and in other countries. To support the state control and supervision over the therapeutic and prophylactic bacteriophage preparations produced for the use in the framework of the personalised approach, the authors determined the main production and quality control stages for bacteriophage medicinal products.

Carbohydrate compounds are widely used as fillers and stabilisers in biological products. When present, these compounds guarantee that the active pharmaceutical ingredient will remain stable during production, transportation, and storage. At the same time, pharmacopoeias standardise the excipient content and require that excipients should be quantified for assessing the quality of biological products.

The aim of the study was to identify promising methods for the development of quantification procedures for carbohydrate compounds in biological products.

The authors analysed regulatory documents for biological products approved in the Russian Federation. The most widely used excipients, both individually and in combinations, are polyols (sorbitol and mannitol), monosaccarides (glucose), and disaccharides (trehalose, sucrose, lactose, and maltose). Using literature data, the authors reviewed the methods used for quantifying polyols, monosaccharides, and disaccharides to assess the quality of biological products. Quantitative determination of carbohydrate stabilisers employs titrimetric, spectrophotometric, enzymatic, and chromatographic methods. This review presents an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. It highlights the advantages of ionic HPLC with amperometric detection and hydrophilic HPLC with refractometric and evaporative light scattering detection, which are sufficiently selective and can identify substances without prior derivatisation. In conclusion, ionic and hydrophilic HPLC methods are a promising base for the development of quantification procedures for carbohydrate stabilisers.

Peptide mapping is a key method for studying the primary structure of proteins. With its sensitivity to the slightest changes in the covalent structure of a protein, this method is applicable both to medicinal product identification at the control stage and to production process stability monitoring.

The aim of the study was to develop and validate a peptide-mapping procedure for the identification of a novel highly glycosylated recombinant C1 esterase inhibitor.

Materials and methods. The authors studied recombinant human C1 esterase inhibitor products and trypsin. The study involved peptide mapping using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The following statistics were calculated to evaluate the results: mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation. The validation parameters included specificity, precision, and robustness.

Results. The authors tested several variants of sample preparation for tryptic digests, including additional N-glycanase treatment and complete deglycosylation, and established the optimal conditions for sample preparation and chromatographic separation of C1 esterase inhibitor peptides to obtain consistent chromatographic profiles (peptide maps). The authors identified characteristic peaks and the corresponding relative retention time and area ranges. The absolute retention time of the second (characteristic) peak was approximately 16.5–16.9 minutes. The relative retention times were 2.14–2.21 for peak 9, 2.55–2.64 for peak 12, 2.97–3.14 for peak 14, 3.11–3.29 for peak 15, and 6.20–6.63 for peak 28.

Conclusions. The authors developed a peptide-mapping procedure for C1 esterase inhibitors and optimised the conditions to achieve an over 18-hour reduction in sample preparation time. This procedure met the established acceptance criteria for specificity, precision, and robustness.

Diabetes poses a serious threat to the health of people around the world. Therefore, in 2021, the World Health Organisation launched the Global Diabetes Compact, an initiative aimed at improving the management and prevention of diabetes. The rapid growth in the number of diabetic patients has increased the need for insulin. Rapid-acting human insulin analogues, including insulin aspart, improve the efficacy of insulin therapy. Methods for insulin aspart production include its biosynthesis in the proinsulin form in Escherichia coli. However, the yield of the recombinant protein largely depends on the optimisation of the production process.

The aim of the study was to optimise the induction conditions for an E. coli strain expressing recombinant proinsulin aspart through applying the Design of Experiment (DoE) approach to enhance bacterial cell productivity.

Materials and methods. The study focused on a strain of E. coli producing proinsulin aspart. The authors planned the experiment using MODDE software and the reduced face-centred central composite design (CCF) enabling the assessment of factor interactions and the creation of design spaces. The authors carried out fermentations of the producing strain in a 5 L Biostat® B bioreactor and measured proinsulin aspart concentrations by capillary gel electrophoresis. The results were analysed using GraphPad Prism 6.

Results. Using the DoE approach, the authors optimised the conditions for the growth of the producer strain and the biosynthesis of proinsulin aspart. Based on data from response surface plots for wet biomass concentration, specific productivity, and volumetric productivity, as well as plotted models, the authors established design spaces for the induction of proinsulin aspart expression in E. coli. The plotted models demonstrated high predictive power and high reproducibility of the results. The authors successfully validated the induction process for the synthesis of proinsulin aspart in a bioreactor under optimised conditions. The volumetric productivity of the strain producing proinsulin aspart increased from 3.06±0.16 g/L (conventional conditions) to 4.93±0.80 g/L (optimised conditions).

Conclusions. The authors achieved a 60% increase in the volumetric yield of proinsulin aspart. The study results may be used to intensify the industrial production of insulin aspart.

The regulatory standards require that the identification of live plague vaccines and the liquid tularaemia allergen (Tularin) should be performed by immunofluorescence. A major drawback of the recommended method is its labour intensive nature. However, immunochromatography represents an alternative method that offers a number of advantages, including rapid testing and easy result interpretation.

 The aim of the study was to assess the applicability of immunochromatography to the identification of live plague vaccines and the liquid tularaemia allergen (Tularin).

Materials and methods. The authors performed identification tests using samples of the pharmacopoeia standard for live plague vaccines, three commercial batches of a live plague vaccine, and two batches of the liquid tularaemia allergen (Tularin). These samples were tested using immunochromatographic assay (ICA) reagent kits for rapid detection and identification of Yersinia pestis (ICA System for Y. pestis) and Francisella tularensis (ICA System for F. tularensis) manufactured by the State Scientific Center for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Results. The findings show that immunochromatography is an effective, rapid, and species-specific method to confirm the presence of Y. pestis in a sample of a live plague vaccine or F. tularensis in a sample of the liquid tularaemia allergen (Tularin). To perform identification tests by immunochromatography, the authors recommend diluting live plague vaccine samples to a concentration of 10⁹ bacterial cells/mL and using undiluted samples of the liquid tularaemia allergen (Tularin).

Conclusions. The study results may support the inclusion of ICA into the regulatory standards for live plague vaccines and the liquid tularaemia allergen (Tularin) as an alternative identification method.