Recombinant expression of coagulation factor VIII in hepatic and non-hepatic cell lines stably transduced with third generation lentiviral vectors comprising the minimal factor VIII promoter

Generation of hyperfunctional recombinant human factor IX variants expressed in human cell line SK-Hep-1

OBJECTIVE

To develop recombinant factor IX (FIX) variants with augmented clotting activity.

RESULTS

We generated three new variants, FIX-YKALW, FIX-ALL and FIX-LLW, expressed in SK-Hep-1 cells and characterized in vitro and in vivo. FIX-YKALW showed the highest antigen expression level among the variants (2.17 µg^-mL), followed by FIX-LLW (1.5 µg^-mL) and FIX-ALL (0.9 µg^-mL). The expression level of FIX variants was two-five fold lower than FIX-wild-type (FIX-WT) (4.37 µg^-mL). However, the biological activities of FIX variants were 15-31 times greater than FIX-WT in the chromogenic assay. Moreover, the new variants FIX-YKALW, FIX-LLW and FIX-ALL also presented higher specific activity than FIX-WT (17, 20 and 29-fold higher, respectively). FIX variants demonstrated a better clotting time than FIX-WT. In hemophilia B mice, we observed that FIX-YKALW promoted hemostatic protection.

CONCLUSION

We have developed three improved FIX proteins with potential for use in protein replacement therapy for hemophilia B.

The role of magnetic field in the biopharmaceutical production: Current perspectives

Current scientific evidence on the influence of magnetic field on mammalian cell lines used for industrial production of biopharmaceuticals, on human cell lines and on potential cell lines for the biopharmaceutical production is presented in this review. A novel magnetic coupling induced agitation could be the best solution to eliminate sources of contamination in stirred tank bioreactors which is especially important for mammalian cell cultures. Nevertheless, the side effect of magnetically-coupled stirring mechanism is that cells are exposed to the generated magnetic field. The influence of magnetic field on biological systems has been investigated for several decades. The research continues nowadays as well, investigating the influence of various types of magnetic field in a variety of experimental setups. In the context of bioreactors, only the lower frequencies and intensities of the magnetic field are relevant.

Production of Recombinant Factor VIII in Human Cell Lines

Human cell lines can produce recombinant proteins much more similar to their natural counterpart, compared to other mammalian cell lines, reducing potential immunogenic reactions. Recombinant proteins produced in nonhuman cells can have in its structure glycan epitopes, such as Galα1,3-Gal (alpha-Gal) and N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) residues, that are antigenic to humans and can potentially affect the efficacy of the recombinant product. Therefore, the production of recombinant factor VIII (rFVIII) in human cell lines is a new approach to avoid nonhuman glycosylation. Here, we describe a protocol to produce rFVIII in the human cell line SK-HEP, using a lentiviral vector to produce high quantities of the recombinant protein.

Production of recombinant coagulation factors: Are humans the best host cells?

The main treatment option for Hemophilia A/B patients involves the administration of recombinant coagulation factors on-demand or in a prophylactic approach. Despite the safety and efficacy of this replacement therapy, the development of antibodies against the coagulation factor infused, which neutralize the procoagulant activity, is a severe complication. The production of recombinant coagulation factors in human cell lines is an efficient approach to avoid such complication. Human cell lines can produce recombinant proteins with post translation modifications more similar to their natural counterpart, reducing potential immunogenic reactions. This review provides a brief overview of the most important characteristics of recombinant FVIII and FIX products available on the market and the improvements that have recently been achieved by the production using human cell lines.

Human cell lines: A promising alternative for recombinant FIX production

Factor IX (FIX) is a vitamin K-dependent protein, and it has become a valuable pharmaceutical in the Hemophilia B treatment. We evaluated the potential of recombinant human FIX (rhFIX) expression in 293T and SK-Hep-1 human cell lines. SK-Hep-1-FIX cells produced higher levels of biologically active protein. The growth profile of 293T-FIX cells was not influenced by lentiviral integration number into the cellular genome. SK-Hep-1-FIX cells showed a significantly lower growth rate than SK-Hep-1 cells. γ-carboxylation process is significant to FIX biological activity, thus we performed a expression analysis of genes involved in this process. The 293T gene expression suggests that this cell line could efficiently carboxylate FIX, however only 28% of the total secreted protein is active. SK-Hep-1 cells did not express high amounts of VKORC1 and carboxylase, but this cell line secreted large amounts of active protein. Enrichment of culture medium with Ca(+2) and Mg(+2) ions did not affect positively rhFIX expression in SK-Hep-1 cells. In 293T cells, the addition of 0.5 mM Ca(+2) and 1 mM Mg(+2) resulted in higher rhFIX concentration. SK-Hep-1 cell line proved to be very effective in rhFIX production, and it can be used as a novel biotechnological platform for the production of recombinant proteins.

Quantitative correlation between transcriptional levels of ER chaperone, peroximal protein and FVIII productivity in human Hek-293 cell line

Hek-293 cell line presents good production platform for recombinant therapeutic proteins, however little is known about the components that contribute to the cellular control of recombinant protein production. In this study, we generated a Hek-293 producing recombinant factor VIII (FVIII) and we evaluated the immunoglobulin-binding protein (BiP) and phytanoil-CoA α-hydroxylase (PAHX) expression levels which are known for diminishing FVIII production. Our analyses showed that the recombinant cell population expresses 3.1 ± 1.4 fold of BIP mRNA (P = 0.0054) and 97.8 ± 0.5 fold of PAHX mRNA (P = 0.0016) compared to nontransduced cells. The amount of these proteins was inversely correlated to the secreted FVIII. In conclusion, BIP and PAHX expression are augmented in human cells producing FVIII and they antagonize the amount of therapeutic factor VIII in the cell culture.

Forced expression of Nanog in human bone marrow-derived endothelial cells activates other six pluripotent genes

Human endothelial cells (ECs) have the ability to make up the lining of blood vessels. These cells are also capable of neovascularization and revascularization and have been applied in various clinical situations. With the aim of understanding the effect of NANOG superexpression on ECs, we transduced the Nanog gene into the ECs. Nanog is highly expressed in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and is essential for pluripotency and self-renewal. However, Nanog can also be expressed in somatic stem cells, and this gene is related to great expansion capacity in vitro. We found that ECs expressing Nanog showed expression of other stemness genes, such as Sox2, FoxD3, Oct4, Klf4, c-myc, and β-catenin, that are not normally expressed or are expressed at very low levels in ECs. Nanog is one of the stemness genes that can activate other stemness genes, and the upregulation of the Nanog gene seems to be critical for reprogramming cells. In this study, the introduction of Nanog was sufficient to alter the expression of key genes of the pluripotent pathway. The functional importance of Nanog for altering the cell expression profile and morphology was clearly demonstrated by our results.

SK-HEP cells and lentiviral vector for production of human recombinant factor VIII

Hemophilia A is caused by a deficiency in coagulation factor VIII. Recombinant factor VIII can be used as an alternative although it is unavailable for most patients. Here, we describe the production of a human recombinant B-domain-deleted FVIII (rBDDFVIII) by the human cell line SK-HEP-1, modified by a lentiviral vector rBDDFVIII was produced by recombinant SK-HEP cells (rSK-HEP) at 1.5-2.1 IU/10(6) in 24 h. The recombinant factor had increased in vitro stability when compared to commercial pdFVIII. The functionality of rBDDFVIII was shown by its biological activity and by tail-clip challenge in hemophilia A mice. The rSK-HEP cells grew in a scalable system and produced active rBDDFVIII, indicating that this platform production can be optimized to meet the commercial production scale needs.

Pluripotent reprogramming of fibroblasts by lentiviral mediated insertion of SOX2, C-MYC, and TCL-1A

Reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotency promises to boost cellular therapy. Most instances of direct reprogramming have been achieved by forced expression of defined exogenous factors using multiple viral vectors. The most used 4 transcription factors, octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4), (sex determining region Y)-box 2 (SOX2), Kruppel-like factor 4 (KLF4), and v-myc myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (C-MYC), can induce pluripotency in mouse and human fibroblasts. Here, we report that forced expression of a new combination of transcription factors (T-cell leukemia/lymphoma protein 1A [TCL-1A], C-MYC, and SOX2) is sufficient to promote the reprogramming of human fibroblasts into pluripotent cells. These 3-factor pluripotent cells are similar to human embryonic stem cells in morphology, in the ability to differentiate into cells of the 3 embryonic layers, and at the level of global gene expression. Induced pluripotent human cells generated by a combination of other factors will be of great help for the understanding of reprogramming pathways. This, in turn, will allow us to better control cell-fate and apply this knowledge to cell therapy.