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Jerabek T, Burkhart M, Goetz S, Greck B, Menthe A, Neef R, Otte K. Inefficient transcription is a production bottleneck for artificial therapeutic BiTE® proteins. N Biotechnol 2024; 79:91-99. [PMID: 38154615 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.12.008] [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: 11/10/2023] [Revised: 12/15/2023] [Accepted: 12/25/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
Antibodies are potent biopharmaceuticals used to treat severe diseases, including cancers. During the past decade, more complex modalities have been developed including bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE®) molecules, e.g. by Amgen. However, non-natural and complex molecule formats often prove to be difficult-to-express (DTE), which is the case for BiTE® molecules. Due to the growing importance of multispecific modalities such as half-life extended (HLE) BiTE® and HLE dual-targeting bispecific T-cell engager (dBiTE) molecules, this artificial class of therapeutic proteins was investigated for molecular bottlenecks in stable production cell lines, by analyzing all relevant steps of recombinant protein production. As a result, drastically reduced intracellular BiTE® molecule-encoding mRNA levels were identified as a potential production bottleneck. Using in vitro transcription (IVT), the transcription rate of the BiTE® molecule-encoding mRNA was identified as the root cause for reduced amounts of intracellular mRNA. In an attempt to improve the transcription rate of a BiTE® molecule, it could be demonstrated that the artificial and special structure of the BiTE® molecule was not the rate limiting step for reduced IVT rate. However, modulation of the primary DNA sequence led to significant improvement of IVT rate. The analyses presented provide insight into the HLE BiTE® / HLE d(BiTE®) class of DTE proteins and perhaps into other classes of DTE proteins, and therefore may lead to identification of further production bottlenecks and optimization strategies to overcome manufacturability challenges associated with various complex therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Jerabek
- Institute of Applied Biotechnology, University of Applied Sciences Biberach, Hubertus-Liebrecht-Str. 35, 88400 Biberach an der Riss, Germany.
| | - Madina Burkhart
- Institute of Applied Biotechnology, University of Applied Sciences Biberach, Hubertus-Liebrecht-Str. 35, 88400 Biberach an der Riss, Germany
| | - Selina Goetz
- Process Development, Amgen Research (Munich) GmbH, Staffelseestraße 2, 81477 Munich, Germany
| | - Benedikt Greck
- Process Development, Amgen Research (Munich) GmbH, Staffelseestraße 2, 81477 Munich, Germany
| | - Anika Menthe
- Process Development, Amgen Research (Munich) GmbH, Staffelseestraße 2, 81477 Munich, Germany
| | - Ruediger Neef
- Process Development, Amgen Research (Munich) GmbH, Staffelseestraße 2, 81477 Munich, Germany
| | - Kerstin Otte
- Institute of Applied Biotechnology, University of Applied Sciences Biberach, Hubertus-Liebrecht-Str. 35, 88400 Biberach an der Riss, Germany
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2
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Mao L, Schneider JW, Robinson AS. Rosmarinic acid enhances CHO cell productivity and proliferation through activation of the unfolded protein response and the mTOR pathway. Biotechnol J 2024; 19:e2300397. [PMID: 37897814 DOI: 10.1002/biot.202300397] [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: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/30/2023]
Abstract
Rosmarinic acid (RA) has gained attraction in bioprocessing as a media supplement to improve cellular proliferation and protein production. Here, we observe up to a two-fold increase in antibody production with RA-supplementation, and a concentration-dependent effect of RA on cell proliferation for fed-batch Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell cultures. Contrary to previously reported antioxidant activity, RA increased the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, stimulated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, activated the unfolded protein response (UPR), and elicited DNA damage. Despite such stressful events, RA appeared to maintained cell health via mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway activation; both mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2) were stimulated in RA-supplemented cultures. By reversing such mTOR pathway activity through either chemical inhibitor addition or siRNA knockdown of genes regulating the mTORC1 and mTORC2 complexes, antibody production, UPR signaling, and stress-induced DNA damage were reduced. Further, the proliferative effect of RA appeared to be regulated selectively by mTORC2 activation and have reproduced this observation by using the mTORC2 stimulator SC-79. Analogously, knockdown of mTORC2 strongly reduced X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1) splicing, which would be expected to reduce antibody folding and secretion, sugging that reduced mTORC2 would correlate with reduced antibody levels. The crosstalk between mTOR activation and UPR upregulation may thus be related directly to the enhanced productivity. Our results show the importance of the mTOR and UPR pathways in increasing antibody productivity, and suggest that RA supplementation may obviate the need for labor-intensive genetic engineering by directly activating pathways favorable to cell culture performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leran Mao
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - James W Schneider
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Anne S Robinson
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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3
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Syddall KL, Fernandez-Martell A, Cartwright JF, Alexandru-Crivac CN, Hodgson A, Racher AJ, Young RJ, James DC. Directed evolution of biomass intensive CHO cells by adaptation to sub-physiological temperature. Metab Eng 2024; 81:53-69. [PMID: 38007176 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2023.11.005] [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: 03/31/2023] [Revised: 11/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/27/2023]
Abstract
We report a simple and effective means to increase the biosynthetic capacity of host CHO cells. Lonza proprietary CHOK1SV® cells were evolved by serial sub-culture for over 150 generations at 32 °C. During this period the specific proliferation rate of hypothermic cells gradually recovered to become comparable to that of cells routinely maintained at 37 °C. Cold-adapted cell populations exhibited (1) a significantly increased volume and biomass content (exemplified by total RNA and protein), (2) increased mitochondrial function, (3) an increased antioxidant capacity, (4) altered central metabolism, (5) increased transient and stable productivity of a model IgG4 monoclonal antibody and Fc-fusion protein, and (6) unaffected recombinant protein N-glycan processing. This phenotypic transformation was associated with significant genome-scale changes in both karyotype and the relative abundance of thousands of cellular mRNAs across numerous functional groups. Taken together, these observations provide evidence of coordinated cellular adaptations to sub-physiological temperature. These data reveal the extreme genomic/functional plasticity of CHO cells, and that directed evolution is a viable genome-scale cell engineering strategy that can be exploited to create host cells with an increased cellular capacity for recombinant protein production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie L Syddall
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin St., Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK
| | - Alejandro Fernandez-Martell
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin St., Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK
| | - Joseph F Cartwright
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin St., Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK
| | - Cristina N Alexandru-Crivac
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin St., Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK
| | - Adam Hodgson
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
| | | | | | - David C James
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin St., Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK.
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4
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Heinzelmann D, Lindner B, Renner B, Fischer S, Schulz P, Schmidt M. Droplet digital PCR: A comprehensive tool for genetic analysis and prediction of bispecific antibody assembly during cell line development. N Biotechnol 2023; 78:42-51. [PMID: 37797917 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.10.001] [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: 06/30/2023] [Revised: 08/15/2023] [Accepted: 10/01/2023] [Indexed: 10/07/2023]
Abstract
Molecular biological methods have emerged as inevitable tools to accompany the process of cell line development for the generation of stable and highly productive manufacturing cell lines in the biopharmaceutical industry. PCR-based methods are especially useful for screening and characterization of cell lines due to their low cost, scalability, precision and propensity for multidimensional read-outs. In this study, the diverse applications of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) as a molecular biological tool for cell line development are demonstrated. Specifically, it is shown that ddPCR can be used to enable precise, sensitive and reproducible absolute quantification of genomically integrated transgene copies during cell line development and cell bank characterization. Additionally, an amplitude multiplexing approach is applied to simultaneously run multiple assays on different genetic targets in a single reaction and advance clonal screening by measuring gene expression profiles to predict the assembly and homogeneity of difficult-to-express (DTE) proteins. The implementation of ddPCR-based assays during cell line development allows for early screening at a transcriptional level, particularly for complex, multidomain proteins, where balanced polypeptide chain ratios are of primary importance. Moreover, it is demonstrated that ddPCR-based genomic characterization improves the robustness, efficiency and comparability of absolute transgene copy number quantification, an essential genetic parameter that must be demonstrated to regulatory authorities during clinical trial and market authorization application submissions to support genetic stability and consistency of the selected cell substrate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Heinzelmann
- Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Cell Line Development, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co. KG, Birkendorfer Strasse 65, 88397 Biberach, Germany.
| | - Benjamin Lindner
- Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Cell Line Development, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co. KG, Birkendorfer Strasse 65, 88397 Biberach, Germany
| | - Benjamin Renner
- Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Cell Line Development, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co. KG, Birkendorfer Strasse 65, 88397 Biberach, Germany
| | - Simon Fischer
- Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Cell Line Development, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co. KG, Birkendorfer Strasse 65, 88397 Biberach, Germany
| | - Patrick Schulz
- Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Cell Line Development, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co. KG, Birkendorfer Strasse 65, 88397 Biberach, Germany
| | - Moritz Schmidt
- Bioprocess Development Biologicals, Cell Line Development, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH & Co. KG, Birkendorfer Strasse 65, 88397 Biberach, Germany
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5
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Chakrabarti L, Chaerkady R, Wang J, Weng SHS, Wang C, Qian C, Cazares L, Hess S, Amaya P, Zhu J, Hatton D. Mitochondrial membrane potential-enriched CHO host: a novel and powerful tool for improving biomanufacturing capability. MAbs 2022; 14:2020081. [PMID: 35030984 PMCID: PMC8765075 DOI: 10.1080/19420862.2021.2020081] [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] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
With the aim of increasing protein productivity of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, we sought to generate new CHO hosts with favorable biomanufacturing phenotypes and improved functionality. Here, we present an innovative approach of enriching the CHO host cells with a high mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Stable transfectant pools and clonal cell lines expressing difficult-to-express bispecific molecules generated from the MMP-enriched host outperformed the parental host by displaying (1) improved fed-batch productivity; (2) enhanced long-term cell viability of pools; (3) more favorable lactate metabolism; and (4) improved cell cloning efficiency during monoclonal cell line generation. Proteomic analysis together with Western blot validation were used to investigate the underlying mechanisms by which high MMP influenced production performance. The MMP-enriched host exhibited multifaceted protection against mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum stress. Our findings indicate that the MMP-enriched host achieved an overall “fitter” phenotype that contributes to the significant improvement in biomanufacturing capability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lina Chakrabarti
- Cell Culture & Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | | | - Junmin Wang
- Dynamic Omics, Discovery Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | | | - Chunlei Wang
- Analytical Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | - Chen Qian
- Analytical Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | - Lisa Cazares
- Dynamic Omics, Discovery Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | - Sonja Hess
- Dynamic Omics, Discovery Sciences, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | - Peter Amaya
- Cell Culture & Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | - Jie Zhu
- Cell Culture & Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA
| | - Diane Hatton
- Cell Culture & Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
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6
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Dovgan T, Golghalyani V, Zurlo F, Hatton D, Lindo V, Turner R, Harris C, Cui T. Targeted CHO cell engineering approaches can reduce HCP-related enzymatic degradation and improve mAb product quality. Biotechnol Bioeng 2021; 118:3821-3831. [PMID: 34125434 DOI: 10.1002/bit.27857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2021] [Revised: 05/16/2021] [Accepted: 06/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Host cell proteins (HCP) that co-purify with biologics produced in Chinese hamster ovary cells have been shown to impact product quality through proteolytic degradation of recombinant proteins, leading to potential product losses. Several problematic HCPs can remain in the final product even after extensive purification. Each recombinant cell line has a unique HCP profile that can be determined by numerous upstream and downstream factors, including clonal variation and the protein sequence of the expressed therapeutic molecule. Here, we worked with recombinant cell lines with high levels of copurifying HCPs, and showed that in those cell lines even modest downregulation (≤50%) of the difficult to remove HCP Cathepsin D, through stable short hairpin RNA interference or monoallelic deletion of the target gene using CRISPR-Cas9, is sufficient to greatly reduce levels of co-purifying HCP as measured by high throughput targeted LC-MS. This reduction led to improved product quality by reducing fragmentation of the drug product in forced degradation studies to negligible levels. We also show the potential of cell engineering to target other undesired HCPs and relieve the burden on downstream purification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana Dovgan
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK.,Purification Process Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
| | - Vahid Golghalyani
- Analytical Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
| | - Fabio Zurlo
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
| | - Diane Hatton
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
| | - Viv Lindo
- Analytical Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
| | - Richard Turner
- Purification Process Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
| | - Claire Harris
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
| | - Tingting Cui
- Purification Process Sciences, BioPharmaceutical Development, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Cambridge, AstraZeneca, UK
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7
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Mistry RK, Kelsall E, Sou SN, Barker H, Jenns M, Willis K, Zurlo F, Hatton D, Gibson SJ. A novel hydrogen peroxide evolved CHO host can improve the expression of difficult to express bispecific antibodies. Biotechnol Bioeng 2021; 118:2326-2337. [PMID: 33675232 PMCID: PMC8252053 DOI: 10.1002/bit.27744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2020] [Revised: 02/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The manufacture of bispecific antibodies by Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells is often hindered by lower product yields compared to monoclonal antibodies. Recently, reactive oxygen species have been shown to negatively impact antibody production. By contrast, strategies to boost cellular antioxidant capacity appear to be beneficial for recombinant protein expression. With this in mind, we generated a novel hydrogen peroxide evolved host using directed host cell evolution. Here we demonstrate that this host has heritable resistance to hydrogen peroxide over many generations, displays enhanced antioxidant capacity through the upregulation of several, diverse antioxidant defense genes such as those involved in glutathione synthesis and turnover, and has improved glutathione content. Additionally, we show that this host has significantly improved transfection recovery times, improved growth and viability properties in a fed‐batch production process, and elevated expression of two industrially relevant difficult to express bispecific antibodies compared to unevolved CHO control host cells. These findings demonstrate that host cell evolution represents a powerful methodology for improving specific host cell characteristics that can positively impact the expression of difficult to express biotherapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajesh K Mistry
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | - Emma Kelsall
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | - Si Nga Sou
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | - Harriet Barker
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | - Mike Jenns
- Kymab Ltd, Cell Line Development, Biopharmaceutical Development, Kymab, Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge, UK
| | - Katie Willis
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Berkshire, UK
| | - Fabio Zurlo
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | - Diane Hatton
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
| | - Suzanne J Gibson
- Cell Culture and Fermentation Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals Development, R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
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