Metabolite profiling of CHO cells: Molecular reflections of bioprocessing effectiveness.

Whilst development of medium and feeds has provided major advances in recombinant protein production in CHO cells, the fundamental understanding is limited. We have applied metabolite profiling with established robust (GC-MS) analytics to define the molecular loci by which two yield-enhancing feeds improve recombinant antibody yields from a model GS-CHO cell line. With data across core metabolic pathways, that report on metabolism within several cellular compartments, these data identify key metabolites and events associated with increased cell survival and specific productivity of cells. Of particular importance, increased process efficiency was linked to the functional activity of the mitochondria, with the amount and time course of use/production of intermediates of the citric acid cycle, for uses such as lipid biosynthesis, precursor generation and energy production, providing direct indicators of cellular status with respect to productivity. The data provide clear association between specific cellular metabolic indicators and cell process efficiency, extending from prior indications of the relevance of lactate metabolic balance to other redox sinks (glycerol, sorbitol and threitol). The information, and its interpretation, identifies targets for engineering cell culture efficiency, either from genetic or environmental perspectives, and greater understanding of the significance of specific medium components towards overall CHO cell bioprocessing.

Evaluating the interaction between UCOE and DHFR-linked amplification and stability of recombinant protein expression.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are widely used in the biopharmaceutical industry. In the creation of mammalian cell lines plasmid DNA carrying the gene-of-interest integrates randomly into the host cell genome, which results in variable levels of gene expression between cell lines due to gene silencing mechanisms. In addition, cell lines often show unstable protein production during long-term culture. This means that a large number of clones need to be screened in order to isolate stable, high producing cell lines making mammalian cell line development a long and laborious process. In this study an expression platform incorporating a Ubiquitous Chromatin Opening Element (UCOE; which are proposed to maintain chromatin in an open state) has been utilised for the expression of eGFP in CHO cells. Cell lines containing a UCOE vector, showed a significantly higher and more consistent eGFP expression than the non-UCOE cell lines without DHFR amplification. To further improve recombinant protein production cell lines were amplified with methotrexate (MTX). UCOE cell lines showed improved growth in MTX therefore amplification to 250 nM MTX was achieved following a one-step amplification procedure. However, non-UCOE cell lines showed higher levels of eGFP production following MTX amplification. In addition, UCOE cell lines did not improve stability during long-term culture in the absence of selective pressure. Stable eGFP production was achieved for all cell lines when MTX is present. Finally, UCOE cell lines displayed more consistent response to external stimuli than non-UCOE cell lines, suggesting that UCOE cell lines are less prone to clonal variability.

Metabolite profiling of recombinant CHO cells: designing tailored feeding regimes that enhance recombinant antibody production.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the primary platform for commercial expression of recombinant therapeutic proteins. Obtaining maximum production from the expression platform requires optimal cell culture medium (and associated nutrient feeds). We have used metabolite profiling to define the balance of intracellular and extracellular metabolites during the production process of a CHO cell line expressing a recombinant IgG4 antibody. Using this metabolite profiling approach, it was possible to identify nutrient limitations, which acted as bottlenecks for antibody production, and subsequently develop a simple feeding regime to relieve these metabolic bottlenecks. This metabolite profiling-based strategy was used to design a targeted, low cost nutrient feed that increased cell biomass by 35% and doubled the antibody titer. This approach, with the potential for utilization in non-specialized laboratories, can be applied universally to the optimization of production of commercially important biopharmaceuticals.