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Desmurget C, Perilleux A, Souquet J, Borth N, Douet J. Molecular biomarkers identification and applications in CHO bioprocessing. J Biotechnol 2024; 392:11-24. [PMID: 38852681 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2024.06.005] [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: 12/18/2023] [Revised: 05/23/2024] [Accepted: 06/04/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
Biomarkers are valuable tools in clinical research where they allow to predict susceptibility to diseases, or response to specific treatments. Likewise, biomarkers can be extremely useful in the biomanufacturing of therapeutic proteins. Indeed, constraints such as short timelines and the need to find hyper-productive cells could benefit from a data-driven approach during cell line and process development. Many companies still rely on large screening capacities to develop productive cell lines, but as they reach a limit of production, there is a need to go from empirical to rationale procedures. Similarly, during bioprocessing runs, substrate consumption and metabolism wastes are commonly monitored. None of them possess the ability to predict the culture behavior in the bioreactor. Big data driven approaches are being adapted to the study of industrial mammalian cell lines, enabled by the publication of Chinese hamster and CHO genome assemblies which allowed the use of next-generation sequencing with these cells, as well as continuous proteome and metabolome annotation. However, if these different -omics technologies contributed to the characterization of CHO cells, there is a significant effort remaining to apply this knowledge to biomanufacturing methods. The correlation of a complex phenotype such as high productivity or rapid growth to the presence or expression level of a specific biomarker could save time and effort in the screening of manufacturing cell lines or culture conditions. In this review we will first discuss the different biological molecules that can be identified and quantified in cells, their detection techniques, and associated challenges. We will then review how these markers are used during the different steps of cell line and bioprocess development, and the inherent limitations of this strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Desmurget
- Merck Biotech Development Center, Ares Trading SA (an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), Fenil-sur-Corsier, Switzerland
| | - Arnaud Perilleux
- Merck Biotech Development Center, Ares Trading SA (an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), Fenil-sur-Corsier, Switzerland
| | - Jonathan Souquet
- Merck Biotech Development Center, Ares Trading SA (an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), Fenil-sur-Corsier, Switzerland
| | - Nicole Borth
- Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Julien Douet
- Merck Biotech Development Center, Ares Trading SA (an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), Fenil-sur-Corsier, Switzerland.
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2
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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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3
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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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Skrika-Alexopoulos E, Mark Smales C. Isolation and characterisation of exosomes from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Biotechnol Lett 2023; 45:425-437. [PMID: 36708458 PMCID: PMC10038950 DOI: 10.1007/s10529-023-03353-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2022] [Revised: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Exosomes have previously been isolated from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and their anti-apoptotic properties reported. However, to further facilitate the study of CHO cell derived exosomes and allow their comparison across studies, it is necessary to characterise and define such exosomes using at least three criteria that can act as a reference for the generation of CHO cell produced exosomes. Here we report on the isolation of exosomes from CHO cells, an industrially relevant and widely used cell host for biopharmaceutical protein production, during the exponential and stationary phase of growth during batch culture using a Total Exosome Isolation (TEI) method. The resulting vesicles were characterized and visualized using a diverse range of techniques including Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Zeta potential, Electron Microscopy and immunoblotting, and their protein and RNA content determined. We also generated the lipid fingerprint of isolated exosomes using MALDI-ToF mass spectroscopy. We confirmed the presence of nano sized extracellular vesicles from CHO cells and their subsequent characterization revealed details of their size, homogeneity, surface charge, protein and RNA content. The lipid content of exosomes was also found to differ between exosomes isolated on different days of batch culture. This analysis provides a profile and characterisation of CHO cell exosomes to aid future studies on exosomes from CHO cells and improving the manufacturing of exosomes for biotherapeutic application.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - C Mark Smales
- Industrial Biotechnology Centre and School of Biosciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NJ, UK.
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A proline metabolism selection system and its application to the engineering of lipid biosynthesis in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Metab Eng Commun 2021; 13:e00179. [PMID: 34386349 PMCID: PMC8346673 DOI: 10.1016/j.mec.2021.e00179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2021] [Revised: 07/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the leading mammalian cell host employed to produce complex secreted recombinant biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Metabolic selection marker technologies (e.g. glutamine synthetase (GS) or dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR)) are routinely employed to generate such recombinant mammalian cell lines. Here we describe the development of a selection marker system based on the metabolic requirement of CHO cells to produce proline, and that uses pyrroline-5-carboxylase synthetase (P5CS) to complement this auxotrophy. Firstly, we showed the system can be used to generate cells that have growth kinetics in proline-free medium similar to those of the parent CHO cell line, CHOK1SV GS-KO™ grown in proline-containing medium. As we have previously described how engineering lipid metabolism can be harnessed to enhance recombinant protein productivity in CHO cells, we then used the P5CS selection system to re-engineer lipid metabolism by over-expression of either sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBF1) or stearoyl CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1). The cells with re-engineered proline and lipid metabolism showed consistent growth and P5CS, SCD1 and SREBF1 expression across 100 cell generations. Finally, we show that the P5CS and GS selection systems can be used together. A GS vector containing the light and heavy chains for a mAb was super-transfected into a CHOK1SV GS-KO™ host over-expressing SCD1 from a P5CS vector. The resulting stable transfectant pools achieved a higher concentration at harvest for a model difficult to express mAb than the CHOK1SV GS-KO™ host. This demonstrates that the P5CS and GS selection systems can be used concomitantly to enable CHO cell line genetic engineering and recombinant protein expression. We have engineered a proline P5CS metabolism selection system in CHO cells P5CS proline selection was used to engineer lipid metabolism in CHO cells P5CS selection was stable for at least 100 generations P5CS and GS selection systems were used together to engineer lipid and mAb expression Lipid metabolism P5CS engineered CHO cells give enhanced recombinant protein expression
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Tzani I, Herrmann N, Carillo S, Spargo CA, Hagan R, Barron N, Bones J, Shannon Dillmore W, Clarke C. Tracing production instability in a clonally derived CHO cell line using single-cell transcriptomics. Biotechnol Bioeng 2021; 118:2016-2030. [PMID: 33586781 DOI: 10.1002/bit.27715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2020] [Revised: 02/10/2021] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
A variety of mechanisms including transcriptional silencing, gene copy loss, and increased susceptibility to cellular stress have been associated with a sudden or gradual loss of monoclonal antibody (mAb) production in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines. In this study, we utilized single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) to study a clonally derived CHO cell line that underwent production instability leading to a dramatic reduction of the levels of mAb produced. From the scRNA-seq data, we identified subclusters associated with variations in the mAb transgenes and observed that heavy chain gene expression was significantly lower than that of the light chain across the population. Using trajectory inference, the evolution of the cell line was reconstructed and was found to correlate with a reduction in heavy and light chain gene expression. Genes encoding for proteins involved in the response to oxidative stress and apoptosis were found to increase in expression as cells progressed along the trajectory. Future studies of CHO cell lines using this technology have the potential to dramatically enhance our understanding of the characteristics underpinning efficient manufacturing performance as well as product quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ioanna Tzani
- National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Co Dublin, Ireland
| | - Nicholas Herrmann
- BD Technologies and Innovation, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
| | - Sara Carillo
- National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Co Dublin, Ireland
| | - Cathy A Spargo
- BD Technologies and Innovation, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
| | - Ryan Hagan
- National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Co Dublin, Ireland.,School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Niall Barron
- National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Co Dublin, Ireland.,School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Jonathan Bones
- National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Co Dublin, Ireland.,School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - W Shannon Dillmore
- BD Technologies and Innovation, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
| | - Colin Clarke
- National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Co Dublin, Ireland.,School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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Weinguny M, Klanert G, Eisenhut P, Lee I, Timp W, Borth N. Subcloning induces changes in the DNA-methylation pattern of outgrowing Chinese hamster ovary cell colonies. Biotechnol J 2021; 16:e2000350. [PMID: 33484505 DOI: 10.1002/biot.202000350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2020] [Revised: 01/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most extensively used mammalian production system for biologics intended for use in humans. A critical step in the establishment of production cell lines is single cell cloning, with the objective of achieving high productivity and product quality. Despite general use, knowledge of the effects of this process is limited. Importantly, single cell cloned cells display a wide array of observed phenotypes, which so far was attributed to the instability and variability of the CHO genome. In this study we present data indicating that the emergence of diverse phenotypes during single cell cloning is associated with changes in DNA methylation patterns and transcriptomes that occur during the subcloning process. The DNA methylation pattern of each analyzed subclone, randomly picked from all outgrowing clones of the experiment, had unique changes preferentially found in regulatory regions of the genome such as enhancers, and de-enriched in actively transcribed sequences (not including the respective promoters), indicating that these changes resulted in adaptations of the relative gene expression pattern. The transcriptome of each subclone also had a significant number of individual changes. These results indicate that epigenetic regulation is a hidden, but important player in cell line development with a major role in the establishment of high performing clones with improved characteristics for bioprocessing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcus Weinguny
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria.,Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Gerald Klanert
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria
| | - Peter Eisenhut
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria.,Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Isac Lee
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
| | - Winston Timp
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
| | - Nicole Borth
- ACIB Gmbh, Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria.,Department of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Supercharging BRD4 with NUT in carcinoma. Oncogene 2021; 40:1396-1408. [PMID: 33452461 PMCID: PMC7914217 DOI: 10.1038/s41388-020-01625-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2020] [Revised: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
NUT carcinoma (NC) is an extremely aggressive squamous cancer with no effective therapy. NC is driven, most commonly, by the BRD4-NUT fusion oncoprotein. BRD4-NUT combines the chromatin-binding bromo- and extraterminal domain-containing (BET) protein, BRD4, with an unstructured, poorly understood protein, NUT, which recruits and activates the histone acetyltransferase p300. Recruitment of p300 to chromatin by BRD4 is believed to lead to the formation of hyperacetylated nuclear foci, as seen by immunofluorescence. BRD4-NUT nuclear foci correspond with massive contiguous regions of chromatin co-enriched with BRD4-NUT, p300, and acetylated histones, termed "megadomains" (MD). Megadomains stretch for as long as 2 MB. Proteomics has defined a BRD4-NUT chromatin complex in which members that associate with BRD4 also exist as rare NUT-fusion partners. This suggests that the common pathogenic denominator is the presence of both BRD4 and NUT, and that the function of BRD4-NUT may mimic that of wild-type BRD4. If so, then MDs may function as massive super-enhancers, activating transcription in a BET-dependent manner. Common targets of MDs across multiple NCs and tissues are three stem cell-related transcription factors frequently implicated in cancer: MYC, SOX2, and TP63. Recently, MDs were found to form a novel nuclear sub-compartment, called subcompartment M (subM), where MD-MD interactions occur both intra- and inter-chromosomally. Included in subM are MYC, SOX2, and TP63. Here we explore the possibility that if MDs are simply large super-enhancers, subM may exist in other cell systems, with broad implications for how 3D organization of the genome may function in gene regulation and maintenance of cell identity. Finally, we discuss how our knowledge of BRD4-NUT function has been leveraged for the therapeutic development of first-in-class BET inhibitors and other targeted strategies.
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