Effect of antimicrobial preservatives on partial protein unfolding and aggregation

One-third of protein formulations are multi-dose. These require antimicrobial preservatives (APs); however, some APs have been shown to cause protein aggregation. Our previous work on a model protein cytochrome c indicated that partial protein unfolding, rather than complete unfolding, triggers aggregation. Here, we examined the relative strength of five commonly used APs on such unfolding and aggregation, and explored whether stabilizing the aggregation hot-spot reduces such aggregation. All APs induced protein aggregation in the order m-cresol > phenol > benzyl alcohol > phenoxyethanol > chlorobutanol. All these enhanced the partial protein unfolding that includes a local region which was predicted to be the aggregation hot-spot. The extent of destabilization correlated with the extent of aggregation. Further, we show that stabilizing the hot-spot reduces aggregation induced by all five APs. These results indicate that m-cresol causes the most protein aggregation, whereas chlorobutanol causes the least protein aggregation. The same protein region acts as the hot-spot for aggregation induced by different APs, implying that developing strategies to prevent protein aggregation induced by one AP will also work for others. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 102:365376, 2013