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Woo HJ, Kim J, Kim SM, Kim D, Moon JY, Park D, Lee JS. Context-dependent genomic locus effects on antibody production in recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cells generated through random integration. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2024; 23:1654-1665. [PMID: 38680870 PMCID: PMC11046053 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2024.04.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Revised: 03/30/2024] [Accepted: 04/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
High-yield production of therapeutic protein using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells requires stable cell line development (CLD). CLD typically uses random integration of transgenes; however, this results in clonal variation and subsequent laborious clone screening. Therefore, site-specific integration of a protein expression cassette into a desired chromosomal locus showing high transcriptional activity and stability, referred to as a hot spot, is emerging. Although positional effects are important for therapeutic protein expression, the sequence-specific mechanisms by which hotspots work are not well understood. In this study, we performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to locate randomly inserted vectors in the genome of recombinant CHO cells expressing high levels of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and experimentally validated these locations and vector compositions. The integration site was characterized by active histone marks and potential enhancer activities, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) mediated indel mutations in the region upstream of the integration site led to a significant reduction in specific antibody productivity by up to 30%. Notably, the integration site and its core region did not function equivalently outside the native genomic context, showing a minimal effect on the increase in exogenous protein expression in the host cell line. We also observed a superior production capacity of the mAb expressing cell line compared to that of the host cell line. Collectively, this study demonstrates that developing recombinant CHO cell lines to produce therapeutic proteins at high levels requires a balance of factors including transgene configuration, genomic locus landscape, and host cell properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun Jee Woo
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Jaehoon Kim
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
- Molecular Science and Technology Research Center, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Seul Mi Kim
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Dongwoo Kim
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae Yun Moon
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Daechan Park
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
- Department of Biological Sciences, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae Seong Lee
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
- Department of Applied Chemistry and Biological Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
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2
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Cho K, Lee JS. Revisiting the impact of genomic hot spots: C12orf35 locus as a hot spot and engineering target. Biotechnol Bioeng 2024; 121:3642-3649. [PMID: 38978356 DOI: 10.1002/bit.28801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2024] [Revised: 06/18/2024] [Accepted: 06/30/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024]
Abstract
Traditional Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line development is based on random integration (RI) of transgene that causes clonal variation and subsequent large-scale clone screening. Therefore, site-specific integration (SSI) of transgenes into genomic hot spots has recently emerged as an alternative method for cell line development. However, the specific mechanisms underlying hot spot site formation remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to generate landing pad (LP) cell lines via the RI of transgenes encoding fluorescent reporter proteins flanked by recombination sites to facilitate recombinase-mediated cassette exchange. The RI-based LP cell line expressing high reporter levels with spontaneous C12orf35 locus deletion exhibited similar reporter fluorescent protein levels compared to targeted integrants with an identical reporter LP construct at the CHO genome hot spot, the C12orf35 locus. Additionally, Resf1, a C12orf35 locus gene, knockout (KO) in the RI-based LP cell line with conserved C12orf35 increased reporter expression levels, comparable to those in cell lines with C12orf35 locus disruption. These results indicate that the effect of SSI into the C12orf35 locus, a genomic hot spot, on high-level transgene expression was caused by C12orf35 disruption. In contrast to C12orf35 KO, KO at other well-known hot spot sites at specific loci of genes, including Fer1L4, Hprt1, Adgrl4, Clcc1, Dop1b, and Ddc, did not increase transgene expression. Overall, our findings suggest that C12orf35 is a promising engineering target and a hot spot for SSI-based cell line development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyuhee Cho
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae Seong Lee
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
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3
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Zeh N, Schmidt M, Schulz P, Fischer S. The new frontier in CHO cell line development: From random to targeted transgene integration technologies. Biotechnol Adv 2024; 75:108402. [PMID: 38950872 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2024.108402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2024] [Revised: 06/21/2024] [Accepted: 06/27/2024] [Indexed: 07/03/2024]
Abstract
Cell line development represents a crucial step in the development process of a therapeutic glycoprotein. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most frequently employed mammalian host cell system for the industrial manufacturing of biologics. The predominant application of CHO cells for heterologous recombinant protein expression lies in the relative simplicity of stably introducing ectopic DNA into the CHO host cell genome. Since CHO cells were first used as expression host for the industrial production of biologics in the late 1980s, stable genomic transgene integration has been achieved almost exclusively by random integration. Since then, random transgene integration had become the gold standard for generating stable CHO production cell lines due to a lack of viable alternatives. However, it was eventually demonstrated that this approach poses significant challenges on the cell line development process such as an increased risk of inducing cell line instability. In recent years, significant discoveries of new and highly potent (semi)-targeted transgene integration systems have paved the way for a technological revolution in the cell line development sector. These advanced methodologies comprise the application of transposase-, recombinase- or Cas9 nuclease-mediated site-specific genomic integration techniques, which enable a scarless transfer of the transgene expression cassette into transcriptionally active loci within the host cell genome. This review summarizes recent advancements in the field of transgene integration technologies for CHO cell line development and compare them to the established random integration approach. Moreover, advantages and limitations of (semi)-targeted integration techniques are discussed, and benefits and opportunities for the biopharmaceutical industry are outlined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nikolas Zeh
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH and Co.KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Moritz Schmidt
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH and Co.KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Patrick Schulz
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH and Co.KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Simon Fischer
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH and Co.KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany.
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4
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Lenser M, Ngo HG, Sarrafha L, Rajendra Y. Evaluation of two transposases for improving expression of recombinant proteins in Chinese hamster ovary cell stable pools by co-transfection and supertransfection approaches. Biotechnol Prog 2024:e3496. [PMID: 39016635 DOI: 10.1002/btpr.3496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2024] [Revised: 06/13/2024] [Accepted: 07/09/2024] [Indexed: 07/18/2024]
Abstract
Transposons are genetic elements capable of cutting and pasting genes of interest via the action of a transposase and offer many advantages over random or targeted integration of DNA in the creation of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines for recombinant protein expression. Unique transposases have different recognition sites, allowing multiple transposases to be co-transfected together. They also allow for supertransfection (transfection on a previously transfected pool or cell line) with a second transposase to integrate additional copies of the same gene or an additional gene without disruption of the previously integrated DNA which to our knowledge has not been previously described in literature. Two fluorescent proteins, EGFP and tagRFP657, were either co-transfected or supertransfected into CHO cells using two unique transposases and showed high expression efficiency with similar expression levels (measured as mean fluorescence intensity), regardless of whether the genes were co-transfected or supertransfected onto an existing stable pool. Additionally, dual selection of the genes, both in the absence of L-glutamine and the presence of puromycin, led to higher expression levels than single selection alone. These results demonstrate that supertransfection using unique transposases could be a useful strategy for increasing titers of existing cell lines or for overexpressing helper (non-therapeutic) genes to improve expression and/or product quality of existing pools and cell lines, potentially saving significant time and resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melina Lenser
- Bioprocess Development, Technical Operations, Denali Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Hanh Giai Ngo
- Bioprocess Development, Technical Operations, Denali Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Lily Sarrafha
- Discovery Biology, Denali Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Yashas Rajendra
- Bioprocess Development, Technical Operations, Denali Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, California, USA
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5
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Eisenhut P, Marx N, Borsi G, Papež M, Ruggeri C, Baumann M, Borth N. Manipulating gene expression levels in mammalian cell factories: An outline of synthetic molecular toolboxes to achieve multiplexed control. N Biotechnol 2024; 79:1-19. [PMID: 38040288 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2023] [Revised: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/26/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
Mammalian cells have developed dedicated molecular mechanisms to tightly control expression levels of their genes where the specific transcriptomic signature across all genes eventually determines the cell's phenotype. Modulating cellular phenotypes is of major interest to study their role in disease or to reprogram cells for the manufacturing of recombinant products, such as biopharmaceuticals. Cells of mammalian origin, for example Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and Human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells, are most commonly employed to produce therapeutic proteins. Early genetic engineering approaches to alter their phenotype have often been attempted by "uncontrolled" overexpression or knock-down/-out of specific genetic factors. Many studies in the past years, however, highlight that rationally regulating and fine-tuning the strength of overexpression or knock-down to an optimum level, can adjust phenotypic traits with much more precision than such "uncontrolled" approaches. To this end, synthetic biology tools have been generated that enable (fine-)tunable and/or inducible control of gene expression. In this review, we discuss various molecular tools used in mammalian cell lines and group them by their mode of action: transcriptional, post-transcriptional, translational and post-translational regulation. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using these tools for each cell regulatory layer and with respect to cell line engineering approaches. This review highlights the plethora of synthetic toolboxes that could be employed, alone or in combination, to optimize cellular systems and eventually gain enhanced control over the cellular phenotype to equip mammalian cell factories with the tools required for efficient production of emerging, more difficult-to-express biologics formats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Eisenhut
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib GmbH), Muthgasse 11, 1190 Vienna, Austria
| | - Nicolas Marx
- BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Animal Cell Technology and Systems Biology, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
| | - Giulia Borsi
- BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Animal Cell Technology and Systems Biology, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
| | - Maja Papež
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib GmbH), Muthgasse 11, 1190 Vienna, Austria; BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Animal Cell Technology and Systems Biology, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
| | - Caterina Ruggeri
- BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Animal Cell Technology and Systems Biology, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria
| | - Martina Baumann
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib GmbH), Muthgasse 11, 1190 Vienna, Austria
| | - Nicole Borth
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib GmbH), Muthgasse 11, 1190 Vienna, Austria; BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Animal Cell Technology and Systems Biology, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
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6
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Leitner K, Motheramgari K, Borth N, Marx N. Nanopore Cas9-targeted sequencing enables accurate and simultaneous identification of transgene integration sites, their structure and epigenetic status in recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cells. Biotechnol Bioeng 2023; 120:2403-2418. [PMID: 36938677 DOI: 10.1002/bit.28382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Revised: 01/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/12/2023] [Indexed: 03/21/2023]
Abstract
The integration of a transgene expression construct into the host genome is the initial step for the generation of recombinant cell lines used for biopharmaceutical production. The stability and level of recombinant gene expression in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) can be correlated to the copy number, its integration site as well as the epigenetic context of the transgene vector. Also, undesired integration events, such as concatemers, truncated, and inverted vector repeats, are impacting the stability of recombinant cell lines. Thus, to characterize cell clones and to isolate the most promising candidates, it is crucial to obtain information on the site of integration, the structure of integrated sequence and the epigenetic status. Current sequencing techniques allow to gather this information separately but do not offer a comprehensive and simultaneous resolution. In this study, we present a fast and robust nanopore Cas9-targeted sequencing (nCats) pipeline to identify integration sites, the composition of the integrated sequence as well as its DNA methylation status in CHO cells that can be obtained simultaneously from the same sequencing run. A Cas9-enrichment step during library preparation enables targeted and directional nanopore sequencing with up to 724× median on-target coverage and up to 153 kb long reads. The data generated by nCats provides sensitive, detailed, and correct information on the transgene integration sites and the expression vector structure, which could only be partly produced by traditional Targeted Locus Amplification-seq data. Moreover, with nCats the DNA methylation status can be analyzed from the same raw data without prior DNA amplification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Klaus Leitner
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Nicole Borth
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Animal Cell Technology and Systems Biology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Nicolas Marx
- Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Animal Cell Technology and Systems Biology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
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7
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Srila W, Baumann M, Riedl M, Rangnoi K, Borth N, Yamabhai M. Glutamine synthetase (GS) knockout (KO) using CRISPR/Cpf1 diversely enhances selection efficiency of CHO cells expressing therapeutic antibodies. Sci Rep 2023; 13:10473. [PMID: 37380701 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37288-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/30/2023] Open
Abstract
The glutamine synthetase (GS)-based Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) selection system is an attractive approach to efficiently identify suitable clones in the cell line generation process for biologics manufacture, for which GS-knockout (GS-KO) CHO cell lines are commonly used. Since genome analysis indicated that there are two GS genes in CHO cells, deleting only 1 GS gene could potentially result in the activation of other GS genes, consequently reducing the selection efficiency. Therefore, in this study, both GS genes identified on chromosome 5 (GS5) and 1 (GS1) of CHO-S and CHO-K1, were deleted using CRISPR/Cpf1. Both single and double GS-KO CHO-S and K1 showed robust glutamine-dependent growth. Next, the engineered CHO cells were tested for their efficiency of selection of stable producers of two therapeutic antibodies. Analysis of pool cultures and subclones after a single round of 25 µM methionine sulfoxinime (MSX) selection indicated that for CHO-K1 the double GS5,1-KO was more efficient as in the case of a single GS5-KO the GS1 gene was upregulated. In CHO-S, on the other hand, with an autologously lower level of expression of both variants of GS, a single GS5-KO was more robust and already enabled selection of high producers. In conclusion, CRISPR/Cpf1 can be efficiently used to knock out GS genes from CHO cells. The study also indicates that for the generation of host cell lines for efficient selection, the initial characterisation of expression levels of the target gene as well as the identification of potential escape mechanisms is important.
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Affiliation(s)
- Witsanu Srila
- Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Institute of Agricultural Technology, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
| | - Martina Baumann
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), Vienna, Austria
| | - Markus Riedl
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), Vienna, Austria
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
| | - Kuntalee Rangnoi
- Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Institute of Agricultural Technology, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
| | - Nicole Borth
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), Vienna, Austria.
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria.
| | - Montarop Yamabhai
- Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Institute of Agricultural Technology, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
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8
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Amiri S, Adibzadeh S, Ghanbari S, Rahmani B, Kheirandish MH, Farokhi-Fard A, Dastjerdeh MS, Davami F. CRISPR-interceded CHO cell line development approaches. Biotechnol Bioeng 2023; 120:865-902. [PMID: 36597180 DOI: 10.1002/bit.28329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Revised: 11/28/2022] [Accepted: 01/02/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
For industrial production of recombinant protein biopharmaceuticals, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells represent the most widely adopted host cell system, owing to their capacity to produce high-quality biologics with human-like posttranslational modifications. As opposed to random integration, targeted genome editing in genomic safe harbor sites has offered CHO cell line engineering a new perspective, ensuring production consistency in long-term culture and high biotherapeutic expression levels. Corresponding the remarkable advancements in knowledge of CRISPR-Cas systems, the use of CRISPR-Cas technology along with the donor design strategies has been pushed into increasing novel scenarios in cell line engineering, allowing scientists to modify mammalian genomes such as CHO cell line quickly, readily, and efficiently. Depending on the strategies and production requirements, the gene of interest can also be incorporated at single or multiple loci. This review will give a gist of all the most fundamental recent advancements in CHO cell line development, such as different cell line engineering approaches along with donor design strategies for targeted integration of the desired construct into genomic hot spots, which could ultimately lead to the fast-track product development process with consistent, improved product yield and quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahin Amiri
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Setare Adibzadeh
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Samaneh Ghanbari
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Behnaz Rahmani
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad H Kheirandish
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Aref Farokhi-Fard
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mansoureh S Dastjerdeh
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Fatemeh Davami
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Biotechnology Research Center, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
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9
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Hussein MK, Papež M, Dhiman H, Baumann M, Galosy S, Borth N. In silico design of CMV promoter binding oligonucleotides and their impact on inhibition of gene expression in Chinese hamster ovary cells. J Biotechnol 2022; 359:185-193. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2022.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
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10
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Zhu D, Wang Z, Xu Y, Lin J, Qiu M, Liu J, Li X. Novel application of anti-human Fc nanobody for screening high-producing CHO cells for monoclonal antibody. Eng Life Sci 2022; 22:608-618. [PMID: 36247827 PMCID: PMC9550735 DOI: 10.1002/elsc.202200028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Revised: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal-derived anti-IgG secondary antibodies are currently employed to stain and screen of human monoclonal antibody(mAb)-producing cells, but using animal-derived antibodies may raise the concerns of high cost, complicated operations and biological safety issues in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Nanobodies(VHHs) are attractive forms of antibodies for their straightforward engineering and expression in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems. Using phage-displayed immune llama VHH library, we identified new anti-Fc VHHs that could bind to human Fc with high affinity. In GFP fusion format, the anti-Fc VHH-GFP generated dramatically stronger FACS signals than AF488 conjugated anti-IgG antibodies when used for staining mAb-producing CHO cells. Furthermore, preparative sorting of CHO cells based on anti-Fc VHH-GFP staining resulted in the enrichment of cell lines capable of synthesizing mAb at high productivity. This safe and cost-efficient anti-Fc VHH-GFP may optimize the process of generating highly productive cell lines for therapeutic mAb production compared to conventional animal-derived fluorescent antibodies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Di Zhu
- ChengduMedical CollegeSichuan ProvinceChina
| | - Zheng Wang
- Shanghai Bao Pharmaceuticals Co.Ltd.ShanghaiChina
| | - Yunxia Xu
- Shanghai Bao Pharmaceuticals Co.Ltd.ShanghaiChina
| | - Jing Lin
- ABLINK Biotech Co.Ltd.ChengduChina
| | - Mei Qiu
- ABLINK Biotech Co.Ltd.ChengduChina
| | - Jianghai Liu
- ChengduMedical CollegeSichuan ProvinceChina
- ABLINK Biotech Co.Ltd.ChengduChina
| | - Xinlei Li
- ChengduMedical CollegeSichuan ProvinceChina
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11
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Yang W, Zhang J, Xiao Y, Li W, Wang T. Screening Strategies for High-Yield Chinese Hamster Ovary Cell Clones. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2022; 10:858478. [PMID: 35782513 PMCID: PMC9247297 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.858478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are by far the most commonly used mammalian expression system for recombinant expression of therapeutic proteins in the pharmaceutical industry. The development of high-yield stable cell lines requires processes of transfection, selection, screening and adaptation, among which the screening process requires tremendous time and determines the level of forming highly productive monoclonal cell lines. Therefore, how to achieve productive cell lines is a major question prior to industrial manufacturing. Cell line development (CLD) is one of the most critical steps in the production of recombinant therapeutic proteins. Generation of high-yield cell clones is mainly based on the time-consuming, laborious process of selection and screening. With the increase in recombinant therapeutic proteins expressed by CHO cells, CLD has become a major bottleneck in obtaining cell lines for manufacturing. The basic principles for CLD include preliminary screening for high-yield cell pool, single-cell isolation and improvement of productivity, clonality and stability. With the development of modern analysis and testing technologies, various screening methods have been used for CLD to enhance the selection efficiency of high-yield clonal cells. This review provides a comprehensive overview on preliminary screening methods for high-yield cell pool based on drug selective pressure. Moreover, we focus on high throughput methods for isolating high-yield cell clones and increasing the productivity and stability, as well as new screening strategies used for the biopharmaceutical industry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenwen Yang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
- International Joint Research Laboratory for Recombinant Pharmaceutical Protein Expression System of Henan, Xinxiang, China
| | - Junhe Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
- International Joint Research Laboratory for Recombinant Pharmaceutical Protein Expression System of Henan, Xinxiang, China
- Institutes of Health Central Plains, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
- *Correspondence: Tianyun Wang, ; Junhe Zhang,
| | - Yunxi Xiao
- Institutes of Health Central Plains, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
| | - Wenqing Li
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
| | - Tianyun Wang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
- International Joint Research Laboratory for Recombinant Pharmaceutical Protein Expression System of Henan, Xinxiang, China
- *Correspondence: Tianyun Wang, ; Junhe Zhang,
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12
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Schmieder V, Fieder J, Drerup R, Gutierrez EA, Guelch C, Stolzenberger J, Stumbaum M, Mueller VS, Higel F, Bergbauer M, Bornhoefft K, Wittner M, Gronemeyer P, Braig C, Huber M, Reisenauer-Schaupp A, Mueller MM, Schuette M, Puengel S, Lindner B, Schmidt M, Schulz P, Fischer S. Towards maximum acceleration of monoclonal antibody development: Leveraging transposase-mediated cell line generation to enable GMP manufacturing within 3 months using a stable pool. J Biotechnol 2022; 349:53-64. [PMID: 35341894 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2022.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 03/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, acceleration of development timelines has become a major focus within the biopharmaceutical industry to bring innovative therapies faster to patients. However, in order to address a high unmet medical need even faster further acceleration potential has to be identified to transform "speed-to-clinic" concepts into "warp-speed" development programs. Recombinant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines are the predominant expression system for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and are routinely generated by random transgene integration (RTI) of the genetic information into the host cell genome. This process, however, exhibits considerable challenges such as the requirement for a time-consuming clone screening process to identify a suitable clonally derived manufacturing cell line. Hence, RTI represents an error prone and tedious method leading to long development timelines until availability of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-grade drug substance (DS). Transposase-mediated semi-targeted transgene integration (STI) has been recently identified as a promising alternative to RTI as it allows for a more rapid generation of high-performing and stable production cell lines. In this report, we demonstrate how a STI technology was leveraged to develop a very robust DS manufacturing process based on a stable pool cell line at unprecedented pace. Application of the novel strategy resulted in the manufacturing of GMP-grade DS at 2,000 L scale in less than three months paving the way for a start of Phase I clinical trials only six months after transfection. Finally, using a clonally derived production cell line, which was established from the parental stable pool, we were able to successfully implement a process with an increased mAb titer of up to 5 g per liter at the envisioned commercial scale (12,000 L) within eight months.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valerie Schmieder
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Juergen Fieder
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Raphael Drerup
- Early Stage Bioprocess Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Erik Arango Gutierrez
- Early Stage Bioprocess Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Carina Guelch
- Late Stage Upstream Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Jessica Stolzenberger
- Late Stage Downstream Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Mihaela Stumbaum
- Early Stage Pharmaceutical Development, Pharmaceutical Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Volker Steffen Mueller
- Early Stage Analytics, Analytical Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Fabian Higel
- Early Stage Analytics, Analytical Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Martin Bergbauer
- Late Stage Analytics, Analytical Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Kim Bornhoefft
- Characterization Technologies, Analytical Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Manuel Wittner
- Global CMC Experts NBE, Global Quality Development, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Petra Gronemeyer
- Cell Banking & Inoculum, Focused Factory CS&T, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Christian Braig
- CST Transfer, Focused Factory CS&T, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Michaela Huber
- Process Transfer Cell Culture, Focused Factory Drug Substance, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Anita Reisenauer-Schaupp
- R&D PM NBE, Global R&D Project Management and Development Strategies, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Markus Michael Mueller
- CMC PM Process Industrialization Germany, Global Biopharma CMC Project Mgmt&TechRA, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Mark Schuette
- Global Technology Management, Global Innovation & Alliance Management, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Sebastian Puengel
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Benjamin Lindner
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Moritz Schmidt
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Patrick Schulz
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Simon Fischer
- Cell Line Development, Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach an der Riss, Germany.
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13
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Marx N, Eisenhut P, Weinguny M, Klanert G, Borth N. How to train your cell - Towards controlling phenotypes by harnessing the epigenome of Chinese hamster ovary production cell lines. Biotechnol Adv 2022; 56:107924. [PMID: 35149147 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2022.107924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2021] [Revised: 02/03/2022] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Recent advances in omics technologies and the broad availability of big datasets have revolutionized our understanding of Chinese hamster ovary cells in their role as the most prevalent host for production of complex biopharmaceuticals. In consequence, our perception of this "workhorse of the biopharmaceutical industry" has successively shifted from that of a nicely working, but unknown recombinant protein producing black box to a biological system governed by multiple complex regulatory layers that might possibly be harnessed and manipulated at will. Despite the tremendous progress that has been made to characterize CHO cells on various omics levels, our understanding is still far from complete. The well-known inherent genetic plasticity of any immortalized and rapidly dividing cell line also characterizes CHO cells and can lead to problematic instability of recombinant protein production. While the high mutational frequency has been a focus of CHO cell research for decades, the impact of epigenetics and its role in differential gene expression has only recently been addressed. In this review we provide an overview about the current understanding of epigenetic regulation in CHO cells and discuss its significance for shaping the cell's phenotype. We also look into current state-of-the-art technology that can be applied to harness and manipulate the epigenetic network so as to nudge CHO cells towards a specific phenotype. Here, we revise current strategies on site-directed integration and random as well as targeted epigenome modifications. Finally, we address open questions that need to be investigated to exploit the full repertoire of fine-tuned control of multiplexed gene expression using epigenetic and systems biology tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Marx
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Peter Eisenhut
- Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology GmbH, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marcus Weinguny
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria; Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology GmbH, Vienna, Austria
| | - Gerald Klanert
- Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology GmbH, Vienna, Austria
| | - Nicole Borth
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria; Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
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14
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Nmagu D, Singh SK, Lee KH. Creation of monoclonal antibody expressing CHO cell lines grown with sodium butyrate and characterization of resulting antibody glycosylation. Methods Enzymol 2021; 660:267-295. [PMID: 34742393 DOI: 10.1016/bs.mie.2021.06.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the primary mammalian cell lines utilized to produce monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The upsurge in biosimilar development and the proven health benefits of mAb treatments reinforces the need for innovative methods to generate robust CHO clones and enhance production, while maintaining desired product quality attributes. Among various product titer-enhancing approaches, the use of histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) such as sodium butyrate (NaBu) has yielded promising results. The titer-enhancing effect of HDACi treatment has generally been observed in lower producer cell lines but those studies are typically done on individual clones. Here, we describe a cell line development (CLD) platform approach for creating clones with varying productivities. We then describe a method for selecting an optimal NaBu concentration to evaluate potential titer-enhancing capabilities in a fed-batch study. Finally, a method for purifying the mAb using protein A chromatography, followed by glycosylation analysis using mass spectrometry, is described. The proposed workflow can be applied for a robust CLD process optimization to generate robust clones, enhance product expression, and improve product quality attributes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Douglas Nmagu
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States
| | - Sumit K Singh
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States
| | - Kelvin H Lee
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States.
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15
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Shin S, Kim SH, Lee JS, Lee GM. Streamlined Human Cell-Based Recombinase-Mediated Cassette Exchange Platform Enables Multigene Expression for the Production of Therapeutic Proteins. ACS Synth Biol 2021; 10:1715-1727. [PMID: 34133132 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.1c00113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
A platform, based on targeted integration of transgenes using recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) coupled with CRISPR/Cas9, is increasingly being used for the development of mammalian cell lines that produce therapeutic proteins, because of reduced clonal variation and predictable transgene expression. However, low efficiency of the RMCE process has hampered its application in multicopy or multisite integration of transgenes. To improve RMCE efficiency, nuclear transport of RMCE components such as site-specific recombinase and donor plasmid was accelerated by incorporation of nuclear localization signal and DNA nuclear-targeting sequence, respectively. Consequently, the efficiency of RMCE in dual-landing pad human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cell lines harboring identical or orthogonal pairs of recombination sites at two well-known human safe harbors (AAVS1 and ROSA26 loci), increased 6.7- and 8.1-fold, respectively. This platform with enhanced RMCE efficiency enabled simultaneous integration of transgenes at the two sites using a single transfection without performing selection and enrichment processes. The use of a homotypic dual-landing pad HEK293 cell line capable of incorporating the same transgenes at two sites resulted in a 2-fold increase in the transgene expression level compared to a single-landing pad HEK293 cell line. In addition, the use of a heterotypic dual-landing pad HEK293 cell line, which can incorporate transgenes for a recombinant protein at one site and an effector transgene for cell engineering at another site, increased recombinant protein production. Overall, a streamlined RMCE platform can be a versatile tool for mammalian cell line development by facilitating multigene expression at genomic safe harbors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seunghyeon Shin
- Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Su Hyun Kim
- Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Jae Seong Lee
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Gyun Min Lee
- Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
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16
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Schmieder V, Novak N, Dhiman H, Nguyen LN, Serafimova E, Klanert G, Baumann M, Kildegaard HF, Borth N. A pooled CRISPR/AsCpf1 screen using paired gRNAs to induce genomic deletions in Chinese hamster ovary cells. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2021; 31:e00649. [PMID: 34277363 PMCID: PMC8261548 DOI: 10.1016/j.btre.2021.e00649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Revised: 06/06/2021] [Accepted: 06/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
• Development of a small-scale CRISPR/AsCpf1 screen in CHO. • Usage of paired gRNAs enables full deletion of coding or noncoding genomic regions. • Growth perturbing paired gRNAs identified. • Key points for considerations in future screens identified.
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most widely used host for the expression of therapeutic proteins. Recently, significant progress has been made due to advances in genome sequence and annotation quality to unravel the black box CHO. Nevertheless, in many cases the link between genotype and phenotype in the context of suspension cultivated production cell lines is still not fully understood. While frameshift approaches targeting coding genes are frequently used, the non-coding regions of the genome have received less attention with respect to such functional annotation. Importantly, for non-coding regions frameshift knock-out strategies are not feasible. In this study, we developed a CRISPR-mediated screening approach that performs full deletions of genomic regions to enable the functional study of both the translated and untranslated genome. An in silico pipeline for the computational high-throughput design of paired guide RNAs (pgRNAs) directing CRISPR/AsCpf1 was established and used to generate a library tackling process-related genes and long non-coding RNAs. Next generation sequencing analysis of the plasmid library revealed a sufficient, but highly variable pgRNA composition. Recombinase-mediated cassette exchange was applied for pgRNA library integration rather than viral transduction to ensure single copy representation of pgRNAs per cell. After transient AsCpf1 expression, cells were cultivated over two sequential batches to identify pgRNAs which massively affected growth and survival. By comparing pgRNA abundance, depleted candidates were identified and individually validated to verify their effect.
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Key Words
- AsCpf1, Cpf1 from Acidaminococcus sp BV3L6
- CHO, Chinese hamster ovary
- CPM, counts per million reads mapped
- CRISPR, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
- CRISPR/AsCpf1
- Cas9, CRISPR-associated protein 9
- Chinese hamster ovary cells
- Cpf1, CRISPR-associated protein in Prevotella and Francisella
- DE, differentially expressed
- DOWN-TTS, downstream transcription termination site
- DR, differentially represented
- EV, empty vector
- EpoFc, Erythropoietin Fc fusion protein
- FACS, fluorescence activated cell sorting
- FC, fold change
- FDR, false discovery rate
- GS, glutamine synthetase
- Genetic screen
- NGS, next generation sequencing
- NTC, no template control
- PAM, protospacer adjacent motif
- PCA, principal component analysis
- Qp, specific productivity
- RMCE, recombinase-mediated cassette exchange
- TMM, trimmed mean of M values
- UP-TSS, upstream transcription start site
- VCD, viable cell density
- dCas9, deactivated Cas9
- gRNA, guide RNA
- genomic deletion
- lncRNA, long non-coding RNA
- ncGene, non-coding gene
- oligo, oligonucleotide
- paired gRNAs
- pgRNA, paired gRNA
- sgRNA, single guide RNA
- µ, growth rate
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Affiliation(s)
- Valerie Schmieder
- Department of Biotechnology, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, Vienna, Austria.,acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
| | - Neža Novak
- Department of Biotechnology, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, Vienna, Austria.,acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
| | - Heena Dhiman
- Department of Biotechnology, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, Vienna, Austria.,acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
| | - Ly Ngoc Nguyen
- Department of Biotechnology, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, Vienna, Austria.,acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
| | - Evgenija Serafimova
- Department of Biotechnology, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, Vienna, Austria.,acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
| | - Gerald Klanert
- acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
| | - Martina Baumann
- acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
| | - Helene Faustrup Kildegaard
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Building 220, Kemitorvet, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Nicole Borth
- Department of Biotechnology, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, Vienna, Austria.,acib GmbH, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Muthgasse 11, Vienna, Austria
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17
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Dias MM, Vidigal J, Sequeira DP, Alves PM, Teixeira AP, Roldão A. Insect High FiveTM cell line development using site-specific flipase recombination technology. G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS 2021; 11:6274903. [PMID: 33982066 PMCID: PMC8763235 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkab166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2020] [Accepted: 05/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Insect Trichoplusia ni High FiveTM (Hi5) cells have been widely explored for production of heterologous proteins, traditionally mostly using the lytic baculovirus expression vector system (BEVS), and more recently using virus-free transient gene expression systems. Stable expression in such host cells would circumvent the drawbacks associated with both systems when it comes to scale-up and implementation of more efficient high-cell density process modes for the manufacturing of biologics. In this work, we combined Flipase (Flp) recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) for generating a stable master clonal Hi5 cell line with the flexibility to express single or multiple proteins of interest from a tagged genomic locus. The 3-step protocol herein implemented consisted of (i) introducing the RMCE docking cassette into the cell genome by random integration followed by selection in Hygromycin B and FACS (Hi5-tagging population), (ii) eliminating cells tagged in loci with low recombination efficiency by transfecting the tagging population with an eGFP-containing target cassette followed by selection in G418 and FACS (Hi5-RMCE population), and (iii) isolation of pure eGFP-expressing cells by FACS and expansion to suspension cultures (Hi5-RMCE master clone). Exchangeability of the locus in the master clone was demonstrated in small-scale suspension cultures by replacing the target cassette by one containing a single protein (i.e. iCherry, as an intracellular protein model) or two proteins (i.e. influenza HA and M1 for virus-like particles production, as an extracellular protein model). Overall, the stable insect Hi5 cell platform herein assembled has the potential to assist and accelerate biologics development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mafalda M Dias
- IBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - João Vidigal
- IBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Daniela P Sequeira
- IBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Paula M Alves
- IBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal
| | - Ana P Teixeira
- IBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,ETH Zurich, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058 - Basel, Switzerland
| | - António Roldão
- IBET, Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal.,Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780-901 Oeiras, Portugal
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18
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Tevelev B, Patel H, Shields K, Wei W, Cooley C, Zhang S, Bitzas G, Duan W, Khetemenee L, Jackobek R, D'Antona A, Sievers A, King A, Tam A, Zhang Y, Sousa E, Cohen J, Wroblewska L, Marshall J, Jackson M, Scarcelli JJ. Genetic rearrangement during site specific integration event facilitates cell line development of a bispecific molecule. Biotechnol Prog 2021; 37:e3158. [PMID: 33891804 PMCID: PMC8459265 DOI: 10.1002/btpr.3158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2021] [Revised: 04/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Site specific integration (SSI) expression systems offer robust means of generating highly productive and stable cell lines for traditional monoclonal antibodies. As complex modalities such as antibody‐like molecules comprised of greater than two peptides become more prevalent, greater emphasis needs to be placed on the ability to produce appreciable quantities of the correct product of interest (POI). The ability to screen several transcript stoichiometries could play a large role in ensuring high amounts of the correct POI. Here we illustrate implementation of an SSI expression system with a single site of integration for development and production of a multi‐chain, bi‐specific molecule. A SSI vector with a single copy of all of the genes of interest was initially selected for stable Chinese hamster ovary transfection. While the resulting transfection pools generated low levels of the desired heterodimer, utilizing an intensive clone screen strategy, we were able to identify clones having significantly higher levels of POI. In‐depth genotypic characterization of clones having the desirable phenotype revealed that a duplication of the light chain within the landing pad was responsible for producing the intended molecule. Retrospective transfection pool analysis using a vector configuration mimicking the transgene configuration found in the clones, as well as other vector configurations, yielded more favorable results with respect to % POI. Overall, the study demonstrated that despite the theoretical static nature of the SSI expression system, enough heterogeneity existed to yield clones having significantly different transgene phenotypes/genotypes and support production of a complex multi‐chain molecule.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Tevelev
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Himakshi Patel
- Analytical Research and Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Kathleen Shields
- Analytical Research and Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Wei Wei
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Cecilia Cooley
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Sam Zhang
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Weili Duan
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Lam Khetemenee
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ryan Jackobek
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Aaron D'Antona
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Annette Sievers
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amy King
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Amy Tam
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Yan Zhang
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Eric Sousa
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Justin Cohen
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Lila Wroblewska
- BioMedicine Design, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jeffrey Marshall
- Analytical Research and Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Martha Jackson
- Analytical Research and Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
| | - John J Scarcelli
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Andover, Massachusetts, USA
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19
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Feary M, Moffat MA, Casperson GF, Allen MJ, Young RJ. CHOK1SV GS-KO SSI expression system: A combination of the Fer1L4 locus and glutamine synthetase selection. Biotechnol Prog 2021; 37:e3137. [PMID: 33609084 DOI: 10.1002/btpr.3137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2020] [Revised: 02/03/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
There are an ever-increasing number of biopharmaceutical candidates in clinical trials fueling an urgent need to streamline the cell line development process. A critical part of the process is the methodology used to generate and screen candidate cell lines compatible with GMP manufacturing processes. The relatively large amount of clone phenotypic variation observed from conventional "random integration" (RI)-based cell line construction is thought to be the result of a combination of the position variegation effect, genome plasticity and clonal variation. Site-specific integration (SSI) has been used by several groups to temper the influence of the position variegation effect and thus reduce variability in expression of biopharmaceutical candidates. Following on from our previous reports on the application of the Fer1L4 locus for SSI in CHOK1SV (10E9), we have combined this locus and a CHOK1SV glutamine synthetase knockout (GS-KO) host to create an improved expression system. The host, CHOK1SV GS-KO SSI (HD7876), was created by homology directed integration of a targetable landing pad flanked with incompatible Frt sequences in the Fer1L4 gene. The targeting vector contains a promoterless GS expression cassette and monoclonal antibody (mAb) expression cassettes, flanked by Frt sites compatible with equivalent sites flanking the landing pad in the host cell line. SSI clones expressing four antibody candidates, selected in a streamlined cell line development process, have mAb titers which rival RI (1.0-4.5 g/L) and robust expression stability (100% of clones stable through the 50 generation "manufacturing window" which supports commercial manufacturing at 12,000 L bioreactor scale).
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Feary
- R&D Cell Engineering, Lonza Biologics, Little Chesterford, UK
| | - Mark A Moffat
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Chesterfield, MO, 63017, USA
| | - Gerald F Casperson
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Chesterfield, MO, 63017, USA
| | - Martin J Allen
- Cell Line Development, Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pfizer Inc., Chesterfield, MO, 63017, USA
| | - Robert J Young
- R&D Cell Engineering, Lonza Biologics, Little Chesterford, UK
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20
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Development of recombinase-based targeted integration systems for production of exogenous proteins using transposon-mediated landing pads. CURRENT RESEARCH IN BIOTECHNOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.crbiot.2021.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
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21
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Széliová D, Ruckerbauer DE, Galleguillos SN, Petersen LB, Natter K, Hanscho M, Troyer C, Causon T, Schoeny H, Christensen HB, Lee DY, Lewis NE, Koellensperger G, Hann S, Nielsen LK, Borth N, Zanghellini J. What CHO is made of: Variations in the biomass composition of Chinese hamster ovary cell lines. Metab Eng 2020; 61:288-300. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2020.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
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22
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Abstract
Following the success of and the high demand for recombinant protein-based therapeutics during the last 25 years, the pharmaceutical industry has invested significantly in the development of novel treatments based on biologics. Mammalian cells are the major production systems for these complex biopharmaceuticals, with Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines as the most important players. Over the years, various engineering strategies and modeling approaches have been used to improve microbial production platforms, such as bacteria and yeasts, as well as to create pre-optimized chassis host strains. However, the complexity of mammalian cells curtailed the optimization of these host cells by metabolic engineering. Most of the improvements of titer and productivity were achieved by media optimization and large-scale screening of producer clones. The advances made in recent years now open the door to again consider the potential application of systems biology approaches and metabolic engineering also to CHO. The availability of a reference genome sequence, genome-scale metabolic models and the growing number of various “omics” datasets can help overcome the complexity of CHO cells and support design strategies to boost their production performance. Modular design approaches applied to engineer industrially relevant cell lines have evolved to reduce the time and effort needed for the generation of new producer cells and to allow the achievement of desired product titers and quality. Nevertheless, important steps to enable the design of a chassis platform similar to those in use in the microbial world are still missing. In this review, we highlight the importance of mammalian cellular platforms for the production of biopharmaceuticals and compare them to microbial platforms, with an emphasis on describing novel approaches and discussing still open questions that need to be resolved to reach the objective of designing enhanced modular chassis CHO cell lines.
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23
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Srirangan K, Loignon M, Durocher Y. The use of site-specific recombination and cassette exchange technologies for monoclonal antibody production in Chinese Hamster ovary cells: retrospective analysis and future directions. Crit Rev Biotechnol 2020; 40:833-851. [DOI: 10.1080/07388551.2020.1768043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Kajan Srirangan
- Mammalian Cell Expression, Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Martin Loignon
- Mammalian Cell Expression, Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Yves Durocher
- Mammalian Cell Expression, Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Département de biochimie et médecine moléculaire, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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24
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Nguyen LN, Baumann M, Dhiman H, Marx N, Schmieder V, Hussein M, Eisenhut P, Hernandez I, Koehn J, Borth N. Novel Promoters Derived from Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells via In Silico and In Vitro Analysis. Biotechnol J 2019; 14:e1900125. [DOI: 10.1002/biot.201900125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2019] [Revised: 05/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ly N. Nguyen
- Department of BiotechnologyBOKU University of Natural Resources and Life SciencesMuthgasse 18 1190 Vienna Austria
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
| | - Martina Baumann
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
| | - Heena Dhiman
- Department of BiotechnologyBOKU University of Natural Resources and Life SciencesMuthgasse 18 1190 Vienna Austria
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
| | - Nicolas Marx
- Department of BiotechnologyBOKU University of Natural Resources and Life SciencesMuthgasse 18 1190 Vienna Austria
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
| | - Valerie Schmieder
- Department of BiotechnologyBOKU University of Natural Resources and Life SciencesMuthgasse 18 1190 Vienna Austria
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
| | - Mohamed Hussein
- Department of BiotechnologyBOKU University of Natural Resources and Life SciencesMuthgasse 18 1190 Vienna Austria
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
| | - Peter Eisenhut
- Department of BiotechnologyBOKU University of Natural Resources and Life SciencesMuthgasse 18 1190 Vienna Austria
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
| | | | | | - Nicole Borth
- Department of BiotechnologyBOKU University of Natural Resources and Life SciencesMuthgasse 18 1190 Vienna Austria
- Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology GmbH1190 Vienna Austria
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25
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Rozov SM, Deineko EV. Strategies for Optimizing Recombinant Protein Synthesis in Plant Cells: Classical Approaches and New Directions. Mol Biol 2019. [DOI: 10.1134/s0026893319020146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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26
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Pristovšek N, Nallapareddy S, Grav LM, Hefzi H, Lewis NE, Rugbjerg P, Hansen HG, Lee GM, Andersen MR, Kildegaard HF. Systematic Evaluation of Site-Specific Recombinant Gene Expression for Programmable Mammalian Cell Engineering. ACS Synth Biol 2019; 8:758-774. [PMID: 30807689 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Many branches of biology depend on stable and predictable recombinant gene expression, which has been achieved in recent years through targeted integration of the recombinant gene into defined integration sites. However, transcriptional levels of recombinant genes in characterized integration sites are controlled by multiple components of the integrated expression cassette. Lack of readily available tools has inhibited meaningful experimental investigation of the interplay between the integration site and the expression cassette components. Here we show in a systematic manner how multiple components contribute to final net expression of recombinant genes in a characterized integration site. We develop a CRISPR/Cas9-based toolbox for construction of mammalian cell lines with targeted integration of a landing pad, containing a recombinant gene under defined 5' proximal regulatory elements. Generated site-specific recombinant cell lines can be used in a streamlined recombinase-mediated cassette exchange for fast screening of different expression cassettes. Using the developed toolbox, we show that different 5' proximal regulatory elements generate distinct and robust recombinant gene expression patterns in defined integration sites of CHO cells with a wide range of transcriptional outputs. This approach facilitates the generation of user-defined and product-specific gene expression patterns for programmable mammalian cell engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nuša Pristovšek
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet, Building 220, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Saranya Nallapareddy
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet, Building 220, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Lise Marie Grav
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet, Building 220, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Hooman Hefzi
- Departments of Pediatrics and Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
| | - Nathan E. Lewis
- Departments of Pediatrics and Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
| | - Peter Rugbjerg
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet, Building 220, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Henning Gram Hansen
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet, Building 220, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Gyun Min Lee
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet, Building 220, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
- Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro,
Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea
| | - Mikael Rørdam Andersen
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, Søltofts Plads, Building 223, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Helene Faustrup Kildegaard
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kemitorvet, Building 220, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
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27
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Hamaker NK, Lee KH. Site-specific Integration Ushers in a New Era of Precise CHO Cell Line Engineering. Curr Opin Chem Eng 2018; 22:152-160. [PMID: 31086757 DOI: 10.1016/j.coche.2018.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are widely used for the production of therapeutic proteins. Customarily, CHO production cell lines are established through random integration, which requires laborious screening of many clones to isolate suitable producers. In contrast, site-specific integration (SSI) accelerates cell line development by targeting integration of transgenes to pre-validated genomic loci capable of supporting high and stable expression. To date, a relatively small number of these so called 'hot spots' have been identified, mainly through empirical methods. Nevertheless, nuclease-mediated and recombinase-mediated SSI have revolutionized cell line engineering by enabling rational and reproducible transgene targeting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathaniel K Hamaker
- Delaware Biotechnology Institute, Newark, DE.,Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
| | - Kelvin H Lee
- Delaware Biotechnology Institute, Newark, DE.,Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
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28
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Grav LM, Sergeeva D, Lee JS, Marin de Mas I, Lewis NE, Andersen MR, Nielsen LK, Lee GM, Kildegaard HF. Minimizing Clonal Variation during Mammalian Cell Line Engineering for Improved Systems Biology Data Generation. ACS Synth Biol 2018; 7:2148-2159. [PMID: 30060646 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Mammalian cells are widely used to express genes for basic biology studies and biopharmaceuticals. Current methods for generation of engineered cell lines introduce high genomic and phenotypic diversity, which hamper studies of gene functions and discovery of novel cellular mechanisms. Here, we minimized clonal variation by integrating a landing pad for recombinase-mediated cassette exchange site-specifically into the genome of CHO cells using CRISPR and generated subclones expressing four different recombinant proteins. The subclones showed low clonal variation with high consistency in growth, transgene transcript levels and global transcriptional response to recombinant protein expression, enabling improved studies of the impact of transgenes on the host transcriptome. Little variation over time in subclone phenotypes and transcriptomes was observed when controlling environmental culture conditions. The platform enables robust comparative studies of genome engineered CHO cell lines and can be applied to other mammalian cells for diverse biological, biomedical and biotechnological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lise Marie Grav
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Daria Sergeeva
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Jae Seong Lee
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
- Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Ajou University, Suwon 16499, Republic of Korea
| | - Igor Marin de Mas
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Nathan E. Lewis
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustatainability, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
| | - Mikael Rørdam Andersen
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Lars Keld Nielsen
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Gyun Min Lee
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
- Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Helene Faustrup Kildegaard
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
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29
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Eisenhut P, Klanert G, Weinguny M, Baier L, Jadhav V, Ivansson D, Borth N. A CRISPR/Cas9 based engineering strategy for overexpression of multiple genes in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Metab Eng 2018; 48:72-81. [PMID: 29852271 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2018.05.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2018] [Revised: 05/25/2018] [Accepted: 05/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Manipulation of multiple genes to engineer Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells for better performance in production processes of biopharmaceuticals has recently become more and more popular. Yet, identification of useful genes and the unequivocally assessment of their effect alone and in combination(s) on the cellular phenotype is difficult due to high variation between subclones. Here, we present development and proof-of-concept of a novel engineering strategy using multiplexable activation of artificially repressed genes (MAARGE). This strategy will allow faster screening of overexpression of multiple genes in all possible combinations. MAARGE, in its here presented installment, comprises four different genes of interest that can all be stably integrated into the genome from one plasmid in a single transfection. Three of the genes are initially repressed by a repressor element (RE) that is integrated between promoter and translation start site. We show that an elongated 5'-UTR with an additional transcription termination (poly(A)) signal most efficiently represses protein expression. Distinct guide RNA (gRNA) targets flanking the REs for each gene then allow to specifically delete the RE by CRISPR/Cas9 and thus to activate the expression of the corresponding gene(s). We show that both individual and multiplexed activation of the genes of interest in a stably transfected CHO cell line is possible. Also, upon transfection of this stable cell line with all three gRNAs together, it was possible to isolate cells that express all potential gene combinations in a single experiment.
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Key Words
- BFP, Blue Fluorescent Protein
- BP, Bandpass
- CD, Chemically defined
- CHO, Chinese Hamster ovary
- CRISPR, Clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats
- CRISPR/Cas9
- Cas9, CRISPR-associated protein 9
- Cell line engineering
- Chinese Hamster
- Fluorescent proteins
- GFP, Green Fluorescent Protein
- MAARGE, Multiplexable Activation of Artificially Repressed Genes
- MFI, Mean fluorescence intensity
- Ovary cells CHO
- Pathway engineering
- RE, Repressor element
- REST, Repressor element 1 silencing transcription factor
- RFP, Red Fluorescent protein
- RFP657, Red Fluorescent protein 657
- bp, Base pairs
- gRNA, Guide RNA
- poly(A), Poly Adenylation signal
- rpm, Rotations per minute
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Eisenhut
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Gerald Klanert
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Marcus Weinguny
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Laurenz Baier
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Vaibhav Jadhav
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Nicole Borth
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Graz, Austria; Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
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30
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Vcelar S, Melcher M, Auer N, Hrdina A, Puklowski A, Leisch F, Jadhav V, Wenger T, Baumann M, Borth N. Changes in Chromosome Counts and Patterns in CHO Cell Lines upon Generation of Recombinant Cell Lines and Subcloning. Biotechnol J 2018; 13:e1700495. [DOI: 10.1002/biot.201700495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2017] [Revised: 12/13/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Vcelar
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
| | - Michael Melcher
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences; Vienna 1190; Austria
| | - Norbert Auer
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
| | - Astrid Hrdina
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
| | - Anja Puklowski
- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG; Biberach 88307; Germany
| | - Friedrich Leisch
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences; Vienna 1190; Austria
| | - Vaibhav Jadhav
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
| | - Till Wenger
- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG; Biberach 88307; Germany
| | - Martina Baumann
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences; Vienna 1190; Austria
| | - Nicole Borth
- Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology; Vienna 1190; Austria
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences; Vienna 1190; Austria
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