PEG-Protein Interactions for Stable Formulations [poster]

Protein self-attraction can arise from a global dipole moment, local dipoles, van der Waals forces, hydrophobic forces and salt bridges. This behavior is detrimental to solubility, stability and viscosity. One mechanism for reducing protein-protein attraction is to stabilize monomers or low-order oligomers by adding an excipient that binds more favorably to the protein than the protein does to itself, surrounding it with a ‘shield’ and so excluding other proteins. In this scientific poster, we examine the potential role of a model excipient (PEG) in stabilizing a model non-specific, self-attractive protein (lysozyme) at concentrations typical of formulations.