Innovative use of a bacterial enzyme involved in sialic acid degradation to initiate sialic acid biosynthesis in glycoengineered insect cells

Bioengineering of Antibody Fragments: Challenges and Opportunities

Antibody fragments are used in the clinic as important therapeutic proteins for treatment of indications where better tissue penetration and less immunogenic molecules are needed. Several expression platforms have been employed for the production of these recombinant proteins, from which E. coli and CHO cell-based systems have emerged as the most promising hosts for higher expression. Because antibody fragments such as Fabs and scFvs are smaller than traditional antibody structures and do not require specific patterns of glycosylation decoration for therapeutic efficacy, it is possible to express them in systems with reduced post-translational modification capacity and high expression yield, for example, in plant and insect cell-based systems. In this review, we describe different bioengineering technologies along with their opportunities and difficulties to manufacture antibody fragments with consideration of stability, efficacy and safety for humans. There is still potential for a new production technology with a view of being simple, fast and cost-effective while maintaining the stability and efficacy of biotherapeutic fragments.

Advances in CRISPR-Cas9 for the Baculovirus Vector System: A Systematic Review

The baculovirus expression vector systems (BEVS) have been widely used for the recombinant production of proteins in insect cells and with high insert capacity. However, baculovirus does not replicate in mammalian cells; thus, the BacMam system, a heterogenous expression system that can infect certain mammalian cells, was developed. Since then, the BacMam system has enabled transgene expression via mammalian-specific promoters in human cells, and later, the MultiBacMam system enabled multi-protein expression in mammalian cells. In this review, we will cover the continual development of the BEVS in combination with CRPISPR-Cas technologies to drive genome-editing in mammalian cells. Additionally, we highlight the use of CRISPR-Cas in glycoengineering to potentially produce a new class of glycoprotein medicines in insect cells. Moreover, we anticipate CRISPR-Cas9 to play a crucial role in the development of protein expression systems, gene therapy, and advancing genome engineering applications in the future.

A new insect cell line engineered to produce recombinant glycoproteins with cleavable N-glycans

Glycoproteins are difficult to crystallize because they have heterogeneous glycans composed of multiple monosaccharides with considerable rotational freedom about their O-glycosidic linkages. Crystallographers studying N-glycoproteins often circumvent this problem by using β1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I (MGAT1)–deficient mammalian cell lines, which produce recombinant glycoproteins with immature N-glycans. These glycans support protein folding and quality control but can be removed using endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase H (Endo H). Many crystallographers also use the baculovirus-insect cell system (BICS) to produce recombinant proteins for their work but have no access to an MGAT1-deficient insect cell line to facilitate glycoprotein crystallization in this system. Thus, we used BICS-specific CRISPR–Cas9 vectors to edit the Mgat1 gene of a rhabdovirus-negative Spodoptera frugiperda cell line (Sf-RVN) and isolated a subclone with multiple Mgat1 deletions, which we named Sf-RVN^Lec1. We found that Sf-RVN and Sf-RVN^Lec1 cells had identical growth properties and served equally well as hosts for baculovirus-mediated recombinant glycoprotein production. N-glycan profiling showed that a total endogenous glycoprotein fraction isolated from Sf-RVN^Lec1 cells had only immature and high mannose-type N-glycans. Finally, N-glycan profiling and endoglycosidase analyses showed that the vast majority of the N-glycans on three recombinant glycoproteins produced by Sf-RVN^Lec1 cells were Endo H-cleavable Man₅GlcNAc₂ structures. Thus, this study yielded a new insect cell line for the BICS that can be used to produce recombinant glycoproteins with Endo H-cleavable N-glycans. This will enable researchers to combine the high productivity of the BICS with the ability to deglycosylate recombinant glycoproteins, which will facilitate efforts to determine glycoprotein structures by X-ray crystallography.

A New Bacmid for Customized Protein Glycosylation Pathway Engineering in the Baculovirus-Insect Cell System

One attractive feature of the baculovirus-insect cell system (BICS) is the baculoviral genome has a large capacity for genetic cargo. This enables construction of viral vectors designed to accept multigene insertions, which has facilitated efforts to produce recombinant multisubunit protein complexes. However, the large genetic capacity of baculovirus vectors has not yet been exploited for multistep pathway engineering. Therefore, we created PolyBac, which is a novel baculovirus shuttle vector, or bacmid, that can be used for this purpose. PolyBac was designed to accept multiple transgene insertions by three different mechanisms at three different sites within the baculovirus genome. After constructing and characterizing PolyBac, we used it to isolate nine derivatives encoding various combinations of up to eight different protein N-glycosylation pathway functions, or glycogenes. We then used these derivatives, which were designed to progressively extend the endogenous insect cell pathway, to assess PolyBac's utility for protein glycosylation pathway engineering. This assessment was enabled by engineering each derivative to produce a recombinant influenza hemagglutinin (rH5), which was used to probe the impact of each glycoengineered PolyBac derivative on the endogenous insect cell pathway. Genetic analyses of these derivatives confirmed PolyBac can accept large DNA insertions. Biochemical analyses of the rH5 products showed each had distinct N-glycosylation profiles. Finally, the major N-glycan on each rH5 product was the predicted end product of the engineered N-glycosylation pathways encoded by each PolyBac derivative. These results generally indicate that PolyBac has utility for multistep metabolic pathway engineering and directly demonstrate that this new bacmid can be used for customized protein glycosylation pathway engineering in the BICS.

A new nodavirus-negative Trichoplusia ni cell line for baculovirus-mediated protein production

Cell lines derived from Trichoplusia ni (Tn) are widely used as hosts in the baculovirus-insect cell system (BICS). One advantage of Tn cell lines is they can produce recombinant proteins at higher levels than cell lines derived from other insects. However, Tn cell lines are persistently infected with an alphanodavirus, Tn5 cell-line virus (TnCLV), which reduces their utility as a host for the BICS. Several groups have isolated TnCLV-negative Tn cell lines, but none were thoroughly characterized and shown to be free of other adventitious viruses. Thus, we isolated and extensively characterized a new TnCLV-negative line, Tn-nodavirus-negative (Tn-NVN). Tn-NVN cells have no detectable TnCLV, no other previously identified viral contaminants of lepidopteran insect cell lines, and no sequences associated with any replicating virus or other viral adventitious agents. Tn-NVN cells tested negative for >60 species of Mycoplasma, Acholeplasma, Spiroplasma, and Ureaplasma. Finally, Tn-NVN cells grow well as a single-cell suspension culture in serum-free medium, produce recombinant proteins at levels similar to High Five™ cells, and do not produce recombinant glycoproteins with immunogenic core α1,3-fucosylation. Thus, Tn-NVN is a new, well-characterized TnCLV-negative cell line with several other features enhancing its utility as a host for the BICS.

Biochemical characterization and mutational analysis of silkworm Bombyx mori β-1,4-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase and insight into the substrate specificity of β-1,4-galactosyltransferase family enzymes

Silkworm Bombyx mori is one of the insect hosts for recombinant protein production at academic and industrial levels. B. mori and other insect cells can produce mammalian proteins with proper posttranslational modifications, such as N-glycosylation, but the structures of N-glycans in B. mori are mainly high mannose- and paucimannose-type, while mammals also produce hybrid- and complex-type glycans. Recently, complex-type N-glycans whose structures are different from mammalian ones have been identified in some insect cell N-glycomes at very low levels compared with levels of high mannose- and paucimannose-type glycans. However, their functions and the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of insect complex-type N-glycans are not clear, and complex-type N-glycans, except for N-acetylglucosamine-terminated glycans, are still not identified in the B. mori N-glycome. Here, we focused on the β-1,4-galactosyltransferase family (also known as glycosyltransferase family 7, GT7) that contains mammalian β-1,4-galactosyltransferase and insect β-1,4-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase. A gene for a GT7 protein (BmGalNAcT) from B. mori was cloned, expressed in a soluble form using a silkworm expression system, and the gene product showed strict β-1,4-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase activity but not β-1,4-galactosyltransferase activity. A mutation in Ile298 or Ile310, which are predicted to be located in the active site, reduced its glycosyltransferase activity, suggesting that these residues and the corresponding residues are responsible for substrate specificity of GT7. These results suggested that BmGalNAcT may be involved in the complex-type N-glycans, and moreover, bioinformatics analysis revealed that B. mori might have an extra gene for a GT7 enzyme with different specificity in addition to the known insect GT7 glycosyltransferases.

The Coming Age of Insect Cells for Manufacturing and Development of Protein Therapeutics

Protein therapeutics is a rapidly growing segment of the pharmaceutical market. Currently, the majority of protein therapeutics are manufactured in mammalian cells for their ability to generate safe and efficacious human-like glycoproteins. The high cost of using mammalian cells for manufacturing has motivated a constant search for alternative host platforms. Insect cells have begun to emerge as a promising candidate, largely due to the development of the baculovirus expression vector system. While there are continuing efforts to improve insect-baculovirus expression for producing protein therapeutics, key limitations including cell lysis and the lack of homogeneous humanized glycosylation still remain. The field has started to see a movement toward virus-less gene expression approaches, notably the use of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats to address these shortcomings. This review highlights recent technological advances that are realizing the transformative potential of insect cells for the manufacturing and development of protein therapeutics.

Sialylation and sialyltransferase in insects

Sialic acids are negatively charged nine carbon monosaccharides located terminally on glycoproteins and glycolipids that control cellular physiological processes. Sialylation is a post translational modification (ptm) regulated by enzymes and has been studied in prokaryotes including bacteria, dueterostomes including vertebrates, Cephalochordates, Ascidians, Echinoderms and protostomes including Molluscs and Arthropods and Plant. Although diverse structures of sialylated molecules have been reported in different organisms, unravelling sialylation in insect biology is a completely new domain. Within protostomes, the study of sialylation in members of Phylum Arthropoda and Class Insecta finds importance. Reports on sialylation in some insects exist. Genetically engineered components of sialylation pathway in Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf9) cell lines have enabled our understanding of sialylation and expression of mammalian proteins in insects. In this study we have summarised the finding on (i) sialylated molecules (ii) processes and enzymes involved (iii) function of sialylation (iv) genetic engineering approaches and generation of mammalian protein expression systems (v) a comparison of sialylation machinery in insects with that of mammals (vi) genes and transcriptional regulation in insects. At present no information on structural studies of insect sialyltransferase (STs) exist. We report minor differences in ST structure in insects on complete protein sequences recorded in Genbank through in silico approaches. An indepth study of all the components of the sialylation pathway in different insect species across different families and their evolutionary significance finds importance as the future scope of this review.

Deinococcus radiodurans pprI expression enhances the radioresistance of eukaryotes

PprI accelerates radiation-induced DNA damage repair via regulating the expression of DNA repair genes and enhances antioxidative enzyme activity in Deinococcus radiodurans after radiation. The main aim of our study was to determine whether the expression of pprI gene could fulfil its DNA repair function in eukaryotes and enhance the radioresistance of eukaryotic organism or not. In this study, we constructed pEGFP-c1-pprI eukaryotic expression vector and established a human lung epithelial cell line BEAS-2B with stable integration of pprI gene. We found that pprIexpression enhanced radioresistance of BEAS-2B cells, decreased γ-H2AX foci formation and apoptosis in irradiated BEAS-2B cells and alleviated radiation induced G2/M arrest of BEAS-2B cells. Moreover, we transferred pEGFP-c1-pprI vector into muscle of BALB/c mice by in vivo electroporation and studied the protective effect of prokaryotic pprI gene in irradiated mice. We found that pprI expression alleviated acute radiation induced hematopoietic system, lung, small intestine and testis damage and increased survival rate of irradiated mice via regulating Rad51 expression in different organs. These findings suggest that prokaryotic pprI gene expression in mammalian cells could enhance radioresistance in vitro and in vivo.

Alteration of a recombinant protein N-glycan structure in silkworms by partial suppression of N-acetylglucosaminidase gene expression

OBJECTIVE

To synthesize complex type N-glycans in silkworms, shRNAs against the fused lobe from Bombyx mori (BmFDL), which codes N-acetylglucosaminidase (GlcNAcase) in the Golgi, was expressed by recombinant B. mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) in silkworm larvae.

RESULTS

Expression was under the control of the actin promoter of B. mori or the U6-2 and i.e.-2 promoters from Orgyia pseudotsugata multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (OpMNPV). The reduction of specific GlcNAcase activity was observed in Bm5 cells and silkworm larvae using the U6-2 promoter. In silkworm larvae, the partial suppression of BmFDL gene expression was observed. When shRNA against BmFDL was expressed under the control of U6-2 promoter, the Man₃GlcNAc(Fuc)GlcNAc structure appeared in a main N-glycans of recombinant human IgG. These results suggested that the control of BmFDL expression by its shRNA in silkworms caused the modification of its N-glycan synthetic pathway, which may lead to the alteration of N-glycans in the expressed recombinant proteins.

CONCLUSIONS

Suppression of BmFDL gene expression by shRNA is not sufficient to synthesize complex N-glycans in silkworm larvae but can modify the N-glycan synthetic pathway.

N-Glycan Modification of a Recombinant Protein via Coexpression of Human Glycosyltransferases in Silkworm Pupae

Recombinant proteins produced in insect cells and insects, unlike those produced in mammalian cells, have pauci-mannose-type N-glycans. In this study, we examined complex-type N-glycans on recombinant proteins via coexpression of human β-1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II (hGnT II) and human β1,4-galactosyltransferase (hGalT I) in silkworm pupae, by using the Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) bacmid system. The actin A3 promoter from B. mori and the polyhedrin promoter from Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedroviruses (AcMNPVs) were used to coexpress hGnT II and hGalT I. These recombinant BmNPVs were coexpressed with human IgG (hIgG), hGnT II and hGalT I in silkworm pupae. When hIgG was coexpressed with hGnT II, approximately 15% of all N-glycans were biantennary, with both arms terminally modified with N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc). In contrast, when hIgG was coexpressed with both hGnT II and hGalT I under the control of the polyhedrin promoter, 27% of all N-glycans were biantennary and terminally modified with GlcNAc, with up to 5% carrying one galactose and 11% carrying two. The obtained N-glycan structure was dependent on the promoters used for coexpression of hGnT II or hGalT I. This is the first report of silkworm pupae producing a biantennary, terminally galactosylated N-glycan in a recombinant protein. These results suggest that silkworms can be used as alternatives to insect and mammalian hosts to produce recombinant glycoproteins with complex N-glycans.

Engineered N-acetylhexosamine-active enzymes in glycoscience

BACKGROUND

In recent years, enzymes modifying N-acetylhexosamine substrates have emerged in numerous theoretical studies as well as practical applications from biology, biomedicine, and biotechnology. Advanced enzyme engineering techniques converted them into potent synthetic instruments affording a variety of valuable glycosides.

SCOPE OF REVIEW

This review presents the diversity of engineered enzymes active with N-acetylhexosamine carbohydrates: from popular glycoside hydrolases and glycosyltransferases to less known oxidases, epimerases, kinases, sulfotransferases, and acetylases. Though hydrolases in natura, engineered chitinases, β-N-acetylhexosaminidases, and endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidases were successfully employed in the synthesis of defined natural and derivatized chitooligomers and in the remodeling of N-glycosylation patterns of therapeutic antibodies. The genes of various N-acetylhexosaminyltransferases were cloned into metabolically engineered microorganisms for producing human milk oligosaccharides, Lewis X structures, and human-like glycoproteins. Moreover, mutant N-acetylhexosamine-active glycosyltransferases were applied, e.g., in the construction of glycomimetics and complex glycostructures, industrial production of low-lactose milk, and metabolic labeling of glycans. In the synthesis of biotechnologically important compounds, several innovative glycoengineered systems are presented for an efficient bioproduction of GlcNAc, UDP-GlcNAc, N-acetylneuraminic acid, and of defined glycosaminoglycans.

MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

The above examples demonstrate that engineering of N-acetylhexosamine-active enzymes was able to solve complex issues such as synthesis of tailored human-like glycoproteins or industrial-scale production of desired oligosaccharides. Due to the specific catalytic mechanism, mutagenesis of these catalysts was often realized through rational solutions.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE

Specific N-acetylhexosamine glycosylation is crucial in biological, biomedical and biotechnological applications and a good understanding of its details opens new possibilities in this fast developing area of glycoscience.

Enhancement of Ebola Virus Infection via Ficolin-1 Interaction with the Mucin Domain of GP Glycoprotein

Ebola virus infection requires the surface viral glycoprotein to initiate entry into the target cells. The trimeric glycoprotein is a highly glycosylated viral protein which has been shown to interact with host C-type lectin receptors and the soluble complement recognition protein mannose-binding lectin, thereby enhancing viral infection. Similarly to mannose-binding lectin, ficolins are soluble effectors of the innate immune system that recognize particular glycans at the pathogen surface. In this study, we demonstrate that ficolin-1 interacts with the Zaire Ebola virus (EBOV) glycoprotein, and we characterized this interaction by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Ficolin-1 was shown to bind to the viral glycoprotein with a high affinity. This interaction was mediated by the fibrinogen-like recognition domain of ficolin-1 and the mucin-like domain of the viral glycoprotein. Using a ficolin-1 control mutant devoid of sialic acid-binding capacity, we identified sialylated moieties of the mucin domain to be potential ligands on the glycoprotein. In cell culture, using both pseudotyped viruses and EBOV, ficolin-1 was shown to enhance EBOV infection independently of the serum complement. We also observed that ficolin-1 enhanced EBOV infection on human monocyte-derived macrophages, described to be major viral target cells,. Competition experiments suggested that although ficolin-1 and mannose-binding lectin recognized different carbohydrate moieties on the EBOV glycoprotein, the observed enhancement of the infection likely depended on a common cellular receptor/partner. In conclusion, ficolin-1 could provide an alternative receptor-mediated mechanism for enhancing EBOV infection, thereby contributing to viral subversion of the host innate immune system.

IMPORTANCE

A specific interaction involving ficolin-1 (M-ficolin), a soluble effector of the innate immune response, and the glycoprotein (GP) of EBOV was identified. Ficolin-1 enhanced virus infection instead of tipping the balance toward its elimination. An interaction between the fibrinogen-like recognition domain of ficolin-1 and the mucin-like domain of Ebola virus GP occurred. In this model, the enhancement of infection was shown to be independent of the serum complement. The facilitation of EBOV entry into target host cells by the interaction with ficolin-1 and other host lectins shunts virus elimination, which likely facilitates the survival of the virus in infected host cells and contributes to the virus strategy to subvert the innate immune response.

An Overview and History of Glyco-Engineering in Insect Expression Systems

Insect systems, including the baculovirus-insect cell and Drosophila S2 cell systems are widely used as recombinant protein production platforms. Historically, however, no insect-based system has been able to produce glycoproteins with human-type glycans, which often influence the clinical efficacy of therapeutic glycoproteins and the overall structures and functions of other recombinant glycoprotein products. In addition, some insect cell systems produce N-glycans with immunogenic epitopes. Over the past 20 years, these problems have been addressed by efforts to glyco-engineer insect-based expression systems. These efforts have focused on introducing the capacity to produce complex-type, terminally sialylated N-glycans and eliminating the capacity to produce immunogenic N-glycans. Various glyco-engineering approaches have included genetically engineering insect cells, baculoviral vectors, and/or insects with heterologous genes encoding the enzymes required to produce various glycosyltransferases, sugars, nucleotide sugars, and nucleotide sugar transporters, as well as an enzyme that can deplete GDP-fucose. In this chapter, we present an overview and history of glyco-engineering in insect expression systems as a prelude to subsequent chapters, which will highlight various methods used for this purpose.

Protein production using the baculovirus-insect cell expression system

The baculovirus-insect cell expression system is widely used in producing recombinant proteins. This review is focused on the use of this expression system in developing bioprocesses for producing proteins of interest. The issues addressed include: the baculovirus biology and genetic manipulation to improve protein expression and quality; the suppression of proteolysis associated with the viral enzymes; the engineering of the insect cell lines for improved capability in glycosylation and folding of the expressed proteins; the impact of baculovirus on the host cell and its implications for protein production; the effects of the growth medium on metabolism of the host cell; the bioreactors and the associated operational aspects; and downstream processing of the product. All these factors strongly affect the production of recombinant proteins. The current state of knowledge is reviewed.

A new insect cell glycoengineering approach provides baculovirus-inducible glycogene expression and increases human-type glycosylation efficiency

Insect cells are often glycoengineered using DNA constructs encoding foreign glyocoenzymes under the transcriptional control of the baculovirus immediate early promoter, ie1. However, we recently found that the delayed early baculovirus promoter, 39K, provides inducible and higher levels of transgene expression than ie1 after baculovirus infection (Lin and Jarvis, 2013). Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the utility of the 39K promoter for insect cell glycoengineering. We produced two polyclonal transgenic insect cell populations in parallel using DNA constructs encoding foreign glycoenzymes under either ie1 (Sfie1SWT) or 39K (Sf39KSWT) promoter control. The surface of Sfie1SWT cells was constitutively sialylated, whereas the Sf39KSWT cell surface was only strongly sialylated after baculovirus infection, indicating Sf39KSWT cells were inducibly-glycoengineered. All nine glycogene-related transcript levels were induced by baculovirus infection of Sf39KSWT cells and most reached higher levels in Sf39KSWT than in Sfie1SWT cells at early times after infection. Similarly, galactosyltransferase activity, sialyltransferase activity, and sialic acid levels were induced and reached higher levels in baculovirus-infected Sf39KSWT cells. Finally, two different recombinant glycoproteins produced by baculovirus-infected Sf39KSWT cells had lower proportions of paucimannose-type and higher proportions of sialylated, complex-type N-glycans than those produced by baculovirus-infected Sfie1SWT cells. Thus, the 39K promoter provides baculovirus-inducible expression of foreign glycogenes, higher glycoenzyme activity levels, and higher human-type N-glycan processing efficiencies than the ie1 promoter, indicating that this delayed early baculovirus promoter has great utility for insect cell glycoengineering.

A novel baculovirus vector for the production of nonfucosylated recombinant glycoproteins in insect cells

Glycosylation is an important attribute of baculovirus-insect cell expression systems, but some insect cell lines produce core α1,3-fucosylated N-glycans, which are highly immunogenic and render recombinant glycoproteins unsuitable for human use. To address this problem, we exploited a bacterial enzyme, guanosine-5'-diphospho (GDP)-4-dehydro-6-deoxy-d-mannose reductase (Rmd), which consumes the GDP-l-fucose precursor. We expected this enzyme to block glycoprotein fucosylation by blocking the production of GDP-l-fucose, the donor substrate required for this process. Initially, we engineered two different insect cell lines to constitutively express Rmd and isolated subclones with fucosylation-negative phenotypes. However, we found the fucosylation-negative phenotypes induced by Rmd expression were unstable, indicating that this host cell engineering approach is ineffective in insect systems. Thus, we constructed a baculovirus vector designed to express Rmd immediately after infection and facilitate the insertion of genes encoding any glycoprotein of interest for expression later after infection. We used this vector to produce a daughter encoding rituximab and found, in contrast to an Rmd-negative control, that insect cells infected with this virus produced a nonfucosylated form of this therapeutic antibody. These results indicate that our Rmd(+) baculoviral vector can be used to solve the immunogenic core α1,3-fucosylation problem associated with the baculovirus-insect cell system. In conjunction with existing glycoengineered insect cell lines, this vector extends the utility of the baculovirus-insect cell system to include therapeutic glycoprotein production. This new vector also extends the utility of the baculovirus-insect cell system to include the production of recombinant antibodies with enhanced effector functions, due to its ability to block core α1,6-fucosylation.