Sylvie Perret

On-line monitoring of respiration in recombinant-baculovirus infected and uninfected insect cell bioreactor cultures

Respiration rates in Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf‐9) cell bioreactor cultures were successfully measured on‐line using two methods: The O2 uptake rate (OUR) was determined using gas phase pO2 values imposed by a dissolved oxygen controller and the CO2 evolution rate (CER) was measured using an infrared detector. The measurement methods were accurate, reliable, and relatively inexpensive. The CER was routinely determined in bioreactor cultures used for the production of several recombinant proteins. Simple linear relationships between viable cell densities and both OUR and CER in exponentially growing cultures were used to predict viable cell density. Respiration measurements were also used to follow the progress of baculoviral infections in Sf‐9 cultures. Infection led to increases in volumetric and per‐cell respiration rates. The relationships between respiration and several other culture parameters, including viable cell density, cell protein, cell volume, glucose consumption, lactate production, viral titer, and recombinant β‐galactosidase accumulation, were examined. The extent of the increase in CER following infection and the time postinfection at which maximum CER was attained were negatively correlated with the multiplicity of infection (MOI) at multiplicities below the level required to infect all the cells in a culture. Delays in the respiration peak related to the MOI employed were correlated with delays in the peak in recombinant protein accumulation. DO levels in the range 5–100% did not exert any major effects on viable cell densities, CER, or product titer in cultures infected with a baculovirus expressing recombinant β‐galactosidase.

Stable high volumetric production of glycosylated human recombinant IFNalpha2b in HEK293 cells

BackgroundMammalian cells are becoming the prevailing expression system for the production of recombinant proteins because of their capacity for proper protein folding, assembly, and post-translational modifications. These systems currently allow high volumetric production of monoclonal recombinant antibodies in the range of grams per litre. However their use for large-scale expression of cytokines typically results in much lower volumetric productivity.ResultsWe have engineered a HEK293 cell clone for high level production of human recombinant glycosylated IFNα2b and developed a rapid and efficient method for its purification. This clone steadily produces more than 200 mg (up to 333 mg) of human recombinant IFNα2b per liter of serum-free culture, which can be purified by a single-step cation-exchange chromatography following media acidification and clarification. This rapid procedure yields 98% pure IFNα2b with a recovery greater than 70%. Purified IFNα2b migrates on SDS-PAGE as two species, a major 21 kDa band and a minor 19 kDa band. N-terminal sequences of both forms are identical and correspond to the expected mature protein. Purified IFNα2b elutes at neutral pH as a single peak with an apparent molecular weight of 44,000 Da as determined by size-exclusion chromatography. The presence of intramolecular and absence of intermolecular disulfide bridges is evidenced by the fact that non-reduced IFNα2b has a greater electrophoretic mobility than the reduced form. Treatment of purified IFNα2b with neuraminidase followed by O-glycosidase both increases electrophoretic mobility, indicating the presence of sialylated O-linked glycan. A detailed analysis of glycosylation by mass spectroscopy identifies disialylated and monosialylated forms as the major constituents of purified IFNα2b. Electron transfer dissociation (ETD) shows that the glycans are linked to the expected threonine at position 106. Other minor glycosylated forms and non-sialylated species are also detected, similar to IFNα2b produced naturally by lymphocytes. Further, the HEK293-produced IFNα2b is biologically active as shown with reporter gene and antiviral assays.ConclusionThese results show that the HEK293 cell line is an efficient and valuable host for the production of biologically active and glycosylated human IFNα2b.

Dissolved carbon dioxide accumulation in a large scale and high density production of TGFβ receptor with baculovirus infected Sf-9 cells.

Production of a TGFβ receptor with high density baculovirus infected Sf-9 cells (7×106cells ml-1) served as a test run for a retrofitted 150 L microbial fermentor. The entire 110 L batch run was performed in serum free medium, with an addition of a concentrated amino acid and yeastolate mixture at the time of infection. This addition strategy has been proven effective at a small scale by enabling cultures to maintain maximum product yield. In the bioreactor however, while cellular growth was comparable to that of the smaller scale control, TGFβ receptor production was three fold below the control. To minimize the mechanical stress, low flow rate of pure oxygen was used to control the dissolved oxygen at 40%. As a consequence, it seems that this aeration strategy involved an accumulation of dissolved carbon dioxide that in turn inhibited the protein production. A model has been developed that estimated the CO2 partial pressure in the culture to be in the vicinity of 0.15 atm. The effect of dissolved CO2 at this concentration has been assessed at smaller scale for TGFβ receptor and β-gal expression, in controlled atmosphere incubators.

Fed-batch culture of Sf-9 cells supports 3 3 10 7 cells per ml and improves baculovirus-expressed recombinant protein yields

Yields of cell and baculovirus-expressed recombinant protein in Sf-9 cultures were improved using fed-batch addition of glucose, amino acids, lipids, yeastolate ultrafiltrate, vitamins, iron and trace metals. Using this approach, the highest maximum cell and recombinant b-galactosidase volumetric yields obtained, 3 3 10 .ml and 900 units.ml , respectively, were both approximately triple their respective values in unamended cultures.

Stable expression of chimeric heavy chain antibodies in CHO cells.

Camelid single domain antibodies fused to noncamelid Fc regions, also called chimeric heavy chain antibodies (cHCAb), offer great potential as therapeutic and diagnostic candidates due to their relatively small size (80 kDa) and intact Fc. In this chapter, we describe two approaches, limiting dilution and minipools, for generating nonamplified Chinese hamster ovary cell lines stably expressing cHCAb in suspension and serum-free cultures using a stringent antibiotic selection. Neither of the protocols necessitates the acquisition or implementation of expensive automated infrastructures and thus could be applied in any lab with minimal cell culture setup. The given protocol allows the isolation of stable clones capable of generating up to 100 mg/L of antibody in batch mode performed in shaker flasks.

Insect cell density in bioreactor cultures can be estimated from on-line measurements of optical density

Total cell density in growing insect cell suspension cultures was accurately estimated from both off-line and on-line measurements of optical density (OD). The latter measurements were done with an in-situ autoclavable OD sensor. The ability to continuously monitor cell density in insect cell cultures may be useful for the development of a large-scale process for recombinant protein production using baculovirus expression vectors.

Transient Gene Expression in Serum-Free Suspension-Growing Mammalian Cells for the Production of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Empty Capsids

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals. It produces severe economic losses in the livestock industry. Currently available vaccines are based on inactivated FMD virus (FMDV). The use of empty capsids as a subunit vaccine has been reported to be a promising candidate because it avoids the use of virus in the vaccine production and conserves the conformational epitopes of the virus. In this report, we explored transient gene expression (TGE) in serum-free suspension-growing mammalian cells for the production of FMDV recombinant empty capsids as a subunit vaccine. The recombinant proteins produced, assembled into empty capsids and induced protective immune response against viral challenge in mice. Furthermore, they were recognized by anti-FMDV bovine sera. By using this technology, we were able to achieve expression levels that are compatible with the development of a vaccine. Thus, TGE of mammalian cells is an easy to perform, scalable and cost-effective technology for the production of a recombinant subunit vaccine against FMDV.

Rapid protein production from stable CHO cell pools using plasmid vector and the cumate gene-switch

To rapidly produce large amounts of recombinant proteins, the generation of stable Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell pools represents a useful alternative to large-scale transient gene expression (TGE). We have developed a cell line (CHOBRI/rcTA) allowing the inducible expression of recombinant proteins, based on the cumate gene switch. After the identification of optimal plasmid DNA topology (supercoiled vs linearized plasmid) for PEIpro™ mediated transfection and of optimal conditions for methionine sulfoximine (MSX) selection, we were able to generate CHOBRI/rcTA pools producing high levels of recombinant proteins. Volumetric productivities of up to 900mg/L were reproducibly achieved for a Fc fusion protein and up to 350mg/L for an antibody after 14days post-induction in non-optimized fed-batch cultures. In addition, we show that CHO pool volumetric productivities are not affected by a freeze-thaw cycle or following maintenance in culture for over one month in the presence of MSX. Finally, we demonstrate that volumetric protein production with the CR5 cumate-inducible promoter is three- to four-fold higher than with the human CMV or hybrid EF1α-HTLV constitutive promoters. These results suggest that the cumate-inducible CHOBRI/rcTA stable pool platform is a powerful and robust system for the rapid production of gram amounts of recombinant proteins.

Recombinant Protein Production by Transient Transfection of Suspension-Growing Cells

Motivated by an increasing demand for the rapid production of milligrams of r-proteins, we have optimized a transfection procedure using polyethyleneimine (PEI) for the human embryonic kidney 293 cells (293) grown in suspension that is scalable. The human placental secreted alkaline phosphatase (SEAP) and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) were used as reporter genes to respectively monitor productivity and transfection efficiency. The 293 cell line and two genetic variants expressing the SV40 large T-antigen (293T) or the EBNA1 protein (293E) were tested for transfection and protein expression using the pcDNA3.1 (Invitrogen) and pTT vectors. Up to ten-fold higher expression level was obtained when transfecting 293E cells with the oriP-containing pTT vector compared to transfection of 293T cells with the SV40 ori-containing pcDNA3.1 vector. Various PEI polymers were tested and both linear and branched 25 kDa PEI proved to be the most efficient. Transfection efficiencies, as determined by FACS-analyses of GFP-positives cells 48 hours post-transfection (hpt), varied from 60 to 98%. The presence of serum in the culture medium significantly increased gene transfer and expression. High levels of expression were also reached when transfection mixture was added to cells in their conditioned medium (24h post-seeding) containing 1% serum. Transfection of a 500 ml bioreactor culture with pTT/SEAP (0.5 mg DNA) led to the accumulation of over 10 mg l-1 of active SEAP at 120 hours post-transfection.

Optimization of a high-cell-density polyethylenimine transfection method for rapid protein production in CHO-EBNA1 cells

For pre-clinical evaluation of biotherapeutic candidates, protein production by transient gene expression (TGE) in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells offers important advantages, including the capability of rapidly and cost-effectively generating recombinant proteins that are highly similar to those produced in stable CHO clones. We have established a novel CHO clone (CHO-3E7) expressing a form of the Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1) with improved TGE productivity relative to parental CHO cells. Taking advantage of a new transfection-compatible media formulation that permits prolonged, high-density culture, we optimized transfection parameters (cell density, plasmid vector and polyethylenimine concentrations) and post-transfection culture conditions to establish a new, high-performing process for rapid protein production. The growth media is chemically defined, and a single hydrolysate feed is added post-transfection, followed by periodic glucose supplementation. This method gave significantly higher yields than our standard low-cell density, F17-based CHO-3E7 TGE method, averaging several hundred mg/l for a panel of recombinant proteins and antibodies. Purified antibodies produced using the two methods had distinct glycosylation profiles but showed identical target binding kinetics by SPR. Key advantages of this new protein production platform include the cost-effectiveness of the transfection reagent, the commercial availability of the culture media and the ability to perform high-cell-density transfection without media change.