Ambient temperature drying of therapeutic protein solution with use of microwave

Abstract

[EN] High quality drying of therapeutic protein-solution is important in medical and pharmaceutical processing. Freeze-drying is mostly used, but it takes a long drying-time and causes damages of protein structures. In order to improve the drying quality, we propose a microwave vacuum drying performed at ambient temperatures under low-pressure conditions. We are focusing on the Parma-Zyme method for the evaporative drying of protein solutions such as egg white or lysozyme with vitrification. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy is used to detect protein conformation changes due to the drying, and it is found that the ambient temperature drying can preserve the protein conformation.