Directed evolution approach to enhance efficiency and speed of outgrowth during single cell subcloning of Chinese Hamster Ovary cells.

Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are the working horse of the pharmaceutical industry. To obtain high producing cell clones and to satisfy regulatory requirements single cell cloning is a necessary step in cell line development. However, it is also a tedious, labor intensive and expensive process. Here we show an easy way to enhance subclonability using subcloning by single cell sorting itself as the selection pressure, resulting in improved subcloning performance of three different host cell lines. These improvements in subclonability also lead to an enhanced cellular growth behavior during standard batch culture. RNA-seq was performed to shed light on the underlying mechanisms, showing that there is little overlap in differentially expressed genes or associated pathways between the cell lines, each finding their individual strategy for optimization. However, in all three cell lines pathways associated with the extracellular matrix were found to be enriched, indicating that cells struggle predominantly with their microenvironment and possibly lack of cell-to-cell contact. The observed small overlap may hint that there are multiple ways for a cell line to achieve a certain phenotype due to numerous genetic and subsequently metabolic redundancies.

Random epigenetic modulation of CHO cells by repeated knockdown of DNA methyltransferases increases population diversity and enables sorting of cells with higher production capacities.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells produce a large share of today's biopharmaceuticals. Still, the generation of satisfactory producer cell lines is a tedious undertaking. Recently, it was found that CHO cells, when exposed to new environmental conditions, modify their epigenome, suggesting that cells adapt their gene expression pattern to handle new challenges. The major aim of the present study was to employ artificially induced, random changes in the DNA-methylation pattern of CHO cells to diversify cell populations and consequently increase the finding of cell lines with improved cellular characteristics. To achieve this, DNA methyltransferases and/or the ten-eleven translocation enzymes were downregulated by RNA interference over a time span of ∼16 days. Methylation analysis of the resulting cell pools revealed that the knockdown of DNA methyltransferases was highly effective in randomly demethylating the genome. The same approach, when applied to stable CHO producer cells resulted in (a) an increased productivity diversity in the cell population, and (b) a higher number of outliers within the population, which resulted in higher specific productivity and titer in the sorted cells. These findings suggest that epigenetics play a previously underestimated, but actually important role in defining the overall cellular behavior of production clones.

Recombinant human prothrombin (MEDI8111) combined with fibrinogen dose-dependently improved survival time and reduced blood loss in a porcine model of dilutional coagulopathy with uncontrolled bleeding.

: Uncontrolled bleeding due to trauma and coagulopathy is an area with high unmet medical need and high mortality rate. Treatment recommendations focus on transfusion of blood components while optimal therapy to improve coagulation remains to be established. The haemostatic effect of 2, 4 and 8 mg/kg recombinant prothrombin (MEDI8111) co-administered with 100 mg/kg fibrinogen (n = 7-8) was investigated in a porcine model of dilutional coagulopathy with uncontrolled bleeding. Vehicle (n = 11), fibrinogen alone (100  mg/kg , n = 15) were included as controls. Dilutional coagulopathy was induced by replacing ∼75% of the blood volume with hydroxyethyl starch and a standardized liver incision was made followed by intravenous administration of study compounds. Survival time and blood loss were determined up to 120 min after liver incision. Rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM EXTEM), prothrombin time (PT), thrombin--antithrombin complex and thrombin generation were measured at baseline, after dilution and 10, 40, 80 and 120 min after compound administration. Administration of MEDI8111+fibrinogen improved haemostasis, decreased blood loss and dose-dependently improved survival time compared to fibrinogen. All pigs receiving a dose of 8 mg/kg MEDI8111+fibrinogen, which restored normal prothrombin concentration, survived to the end of the experiment with close to normal haemostasis as measured by PT and ROTEM EXTEM CT. Administration of fibrinogen and MEDI8111 was sufficient to improve survival time and haemostasis in severely coagulopathic pigs. The dose-dependent haemostatic improvement observed with MEDI8111 administration suggests that prothrombin concentration was rate limiting for coagulation.

Prothrombin time is predictive of low plasma prothrombin concentration and clinical outcome in patients with trauma hemorrhage: analyses of prospective observational cohort studies.

BACKGROUND: Fibrinogen and prothrombin have been suggested to become rate limiting in trauma associated coagulopathy. Administration of fibrinogen is now recommended, however, the importance of prothrombin to patient outcome is unknown. METHODS: We have utilized two trauma patient databases (database 1 n = 358 and database 2 n = 331) to investigate the relationship of plasma prothrombin concentration on clinical outcome and coagulation status. Database 1 has been used to assess the relationship of plasma prothrombin to administered packed red blood cells (PRBC), clinical outcome and coagulation biomarkers (Prothrombin Time (PT), ROTEM EXTEM Coagulation Time (CT) and Maximum Clot Firmness (MCF)). ROC analyses have been performed to investigate the ability of admission coagulation biomarkers to predict low prothrombin concentration (database 1), massive transfusion and 24 h mortality (database 1 and 2). The importance of prothrombin was further investigated in vitro by PT and ROTEM assays in the presence of a prothrombin neutralizing monoclonal antibody and following step-wise dilution. RESULTS: Patients who survived the first 24 h had higher admission prothrombin levels compared to those who died (94 vs.67 IU/dL). Patients with lower transfusion requirements within the first 24 h (≤10 units of PRBCs) also had higher admission prothrombin levels compared to patients with massive transfusion demands (>10 units of PRBCs) (95 vs.62 IU/dL). Admission PT, in comparison to admission ROTEM EXTEM CT and MCF, was found to be a better predictor of prothrombin concentration <60 IU/dL (AUC 0.94 in database 1), of massive transfusion (AUC 0.92 and 0.81 in database 1 and 2 respectively) and 24 h mortality (AUC 0.90 and 0.78 in database 1 and 2, respectively). In vitro experiments supported a critical role for prothrombin in coagulation and demonstrated that PT and ROTEM EXTEM CT are sensitive methods to measure low prothrombin concentration. DISCUSSION: Our analyses suggest that prothrombin concentration at admission is predictive of mortality and transfusion and indicates that prothrombin and fibrinogen are rate limiting in coagulopathy. CONCLUSIONS: Admission PT is predictive of low prothrombin concentration and clinical outcome. PT could therefore be used as a surrogate for prothrombin concentration and further evaluation of point-of-care devices for faster PT analysis is warranted.

Preclinical evaluation of point-of-care prothrombin time as a biomarker test to guide prothrombin replacement therapy in coagulopathic bleeding.

BACKGROUND: Hemorrhage is still a common cause of death in trauma. Central lab measured prothrombin time (lab PT) is predictive of low prothrombin concentration and clinical outcome in trauma patients, however, treatment guidance is limited by slow turnaround times. Here, we have preclinically evaluated the potential of a point-of-care prothrombin time test (POC PT) as a faster alternative to identify patients with low prothrombin concentration. METHODS: Human whole blood was serially diluted and prothrombin time measured by POC PT (CoaguChek XS Pro, Roche) and lab PT. Recombinant human prothrombin (MEDI8111) was added to human whole blood with or without depletion of prothrombin by pretreatment with prothrombin neutralizing antibodies. RESULTS: There was no observable difference in the sensitivity of either test to dilution at blood volumes of 60-100%. At blood volumes of ≤55% (equivalent to 47 mg/L prothrombin), PT sharply increased, with greater dilutional sensitivity observed in the POC test. Both tests were insensitive to prothrombin up to 194 mg/L added MEDI8111 (equivalent to 328 mg/L prothrombin versus endogenous concentration of 129 mg/L). Depletion of endogenous prothrombin inversely correlated with an increase in PT which returned to baseline following addition of 97 mg/L MEDI8111 or above. Both assays correlated well above 48.5 mg/L added MEDI8111 (65.9 mg/L prothrombin). CONCLUSIONS: Our data supports that POC PT tests, such as the CoaguChek XS Pro, are fit for purpose to confirm a coagulopathic threshold for prothrombin and provide a fast, simple, and mobile method to guide MEDI8111 therapy in bleeding trauma patients.

Recombinant human prothrombin reduced blood loss in a porcine model of dilutional coagulopathy with uncontrolled bleeding.

: Uncontrolled bleeding remains one of the leading causes of trauma-induced death. Treatment recommendations focus on fresh frozen plasma and blood cell transfusions, whereas plasma concentrates or single coagulation factors have been studied in recent years. The effect of recombinant human prothrombin factor II (rhFII, 8 mg/kg), activated recombinant human factor VII (rhFVIIa, 300 µg/kg), plasma-derived human fibrinogen (pdhFib) (200 mg/kg), activated prothrombin complex concentrate (aPCC, 40 IU/kg), a three-factor combination intended as a minimal PCC (8 mg/kg rhFII, 640 µg/kg recombinant human factor X (rhFX), and 12 µg/kg rhFVIIa), and vehicle were investigated in a porcine model of dilutional coagulopathy with uncontrolled bleeding. Survival time and blood loss were determined up to 120 min after induction of liver injury. Rotational thromboelastometry EXTEM coagulation time and maximum clot firmness, prothrombin time, thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), thrombin generation (endogenous thrombin potential, ETP) were measured at baseline, after dilution, drug administration, and end of experiment. rhFII, the three-factor combination, and aPCC significantly (P < 0.01) decreased blood loss vs. vehicle and rhFII also vs. fibrinogen (P < 0.05). Survival times increased significantly for rhFII, aPCC, rhFVIIa, and pdhFib vs. vehicle (P < 0.05), and, coagulation time, maximum clot firmness, and prothrombin time improved in all groups. TAT and ETP increased transiently for rhFII and three-factor combination, whereas persistently increased for aPCC. PdhFib and rhFVIIa did not increase TAT and ETP. rhFII decreased blood loss and improved hemostatic markers and survival. In vivo, thrombin generation (TAT) and potential to form thrombin (ETP) were transiently elevated by rhFII. Addition of rhFVIIa and rhFX to rhFII did not further improve hemostatic efficacy.

Characterization of thrombin derived from human recombinant prothrombin.

Thrombin (FIIa) is the key enzyme in haemostasis and acts on several substrates involved in clot formation, platelet activation and feed-back regulation of its own formation. During activation of blood coagulation, FIIa is formed by proteolytic cleavage of prothrombin (FII). In the production of recombinant human FII (rhFII), a key question is whether the thrombin formed has the same properties as endogenous thrombin. We have investigated whether FIIa formed from rhFII and plasma-derived human FII (pdhFII) have the same enzymatic and haemostatic properties against a number of substrates and the same haemostatic capacity in plasma, whole blood and on platelets. Pure FIIa was isolated from rhFII and pdhFII cleaved by recombinant ecarin, and analytical methods were developed to compare the activity of FIIa against different substrates. FIIa derived from rhFII and pdhFII were found to have very similar properties in activating FVIII, FXIII, protein C, platelet aggregation and plasma or whole blood coagulation. Further, the same turnover for S-2366 was found with similar KM. However, activation of FV with rhFIIa was approximately 25% more effective than with pdhFIIa and heparin-enhanced inhibition of rhFIIa by antithrombin was significantly more efficient compared with pdhFIIa with 10% higher inhibition both at steady state and at initial rate conditions. Although differences between the two FIIa preparations using ecarin cleavage were observed, FIIa derived from rhFII administered to human would likely be very similar in activity and function as FIIa formed from endogenous FII.

Improved expression of recombinant human factor IX by co-expression of GGCX, VKOR and furin.

Recombinant human FIX concentrates (rhFIX) are essential in the treatment and prevention of bleeding in the bleeding disorder haemophilia B. However, due to the complex nature of FIX production yields are low which leads to high treatment costs. Here we report the production of rhFIX with substantially higher yield by co-expressing human FIX with GGCX (γ-glutamyl carboxylase), VKOR (vitamin K epoxide reductase) and furin (paired basic amino acid cleaving enzyme) in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Our results show that controlled co-expression of GGCX with FIX is critical to obtain high rhFIX titre, and, that co-expression of VKOR further increased the yield of active rhFIX. Furin co-expression improved processing of the leader peptide of rhFIX but had a minor effect on yield of active rhFIX. The optimal expression level of GGCX was surprisingly low and required unusual engineering of expression vector elements. For VKOR and furin the control of expression was less critical and could be achieved by standard vector element. Using our expression vectors an rhFIX-producing clone with an expression level of up to 30 mg/L of active rhFIX was obtained. In addition an efficient single step purification method was developed to obtain pure and active rhFIX with up to 94% yield.

A triple-transgenic immunotolerant mouse model.

Avoiding unwanted immunogenicity is of key importance in the development of therapeutic drug proteins. Animal models are of less predictive value because most of the drug proteins are recognized as foreign proteins. However, different methods have been developed to obtain immunotolerant animal models. So far, the immunotolerant animal models have been developed to assess one protein at a time and are not suitable for the assessment of combination products. Our aim was to develop an animal model for evaluating the impact of manufacturing and formulation changes on immunogenicity, suitable for both single protein and combination products. We constructed two lines of transgenic mice expressing the three human coagulation factors, II, VII, and X, by inserting a single vector containing the three coagulation factors encoding sequences separated by insulator sequences derived from the chicken beta-globin locus into the mouse genome. Immunization of transgenic mice from the two lines and their wild-type littermates showed that transgenic mice from both lines were immunotolerant to the expressed human coagulation factors. We conclude that transgenic mice immunotolerant to multiple proteins can be obtained, and that these mice are potentially useful as animal models in the assessment of immunogenicity in response to manufacturing changes.

Recombinant snake venom prothrombin activators.

Three prothrombin activators; ecarin, which was originally isolated from the venom of the saw-scaled viper Echis carinatus, trocarin from the rough-scaled snake Tropidechis carinatus, and oscutarin from the Taipan snake Oxyuranus scutellatus, were expressed in mammalian cells with the purpose to obtain recombinant prothrombin activators that could be used to convert prothrombin to thrombin. We have previously reported that recombinant ecarin can efficiently generate thrombin without the need for additional cofactors, but does not discriminate non-carboxylated prothrombin from biologically active γ-carboxylated prothrombin. Here we report that recombinant trocarin and oscutarin could not efficiently generate thrombin without additional protein co-factors. We confirm that both trocarin and oscutarin are similar to human coagulation Factor X (FX), explaining the need for additional cofactors. Sequencing of a genomic fragment containing 7 out of the 8 exons coding for oscutarin further confirmed the similarity to human FX.

Expression and characterization of recombinant ecarin.

The snake venom protease ecarin from Echis carinatus was expressed in stable transfected CHO-S cells grown in animal component free cell culture medium. Recombinant ecarin (r-ecarin) was secreted from the suspension adapted Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO-S) host cells as a pro-protein and activation to the mature form of r-ecarin occurred spontaneously during continued incubation of the cell culture at 37 °C after death of the host cells. Maximal ecarin activity was reached 7 days or more after cell culture viability had dropped to zero. The best producing CHO-S clone obtained produced up to 7,000 EU ecarin/litre in lab scale shaker cultures. The conversion of different concentrations of both prothrombin and prethrombin-2 as substrates for native and r-ecarin were examined with a chromogenic thrombin substrate. At low concentrations both these proteins were converted into thrombin by the two ecarin preparations with comparable rates. However, with prothrombin concentrations above 250 nM r-ecarin apparently had a two times higher turnover than native ecarin, consistent with the observed rapid complete conversion of prothrombin into thrombin by r-ecarin. With r-ecarin a K (m) value of 0.4 µM prethrombin-2 was determined but only a rough estimate could be made of the K (m) for prothrombin of 0.9 µM. In conclusion, r-ecarin was identified as a promising candidate for replacement of native ecarin in assays utilizing conversion of prothrombin to thrombin.

Physical mapping of the Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki and alesti chromosomes.

Two strains of the well-known insect pathogen and biopesticide, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), belonging to subspecies alesti (strain Bt5) and kurstaki (strain Bt213), were chosen for genetic characterization. The two strains belong to different serotypes and are currently classified into different subspecies, although their insecticidal activity is similar. Physical maps were constructed of Bt alesti and Bt kurstaki using Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoreses (PFGE), and the map positions of several genes were determined. The 5.5 Mb combined genetic and physical chromosome maps of the two strains were found to be indistinguishable, and the only differences detected between the strains were of extrachromosomal origin. A cryIA toxin gene probe hybridised to a chromosome fragment and to two extrachromosomal elements in both strains, migrating as 100 kb and 350 kb, respectively. In addition a cry hybridizing extrachromosomal element migrating as 80 kb was present only in Bt alesti. Both strains were also found to contain sequences hybridizing to an enterotoxin (hbla) gene probe. Such sequences were positioned on the 350 kb extrachromosomal element, as well as on the chromosome.

Regulatory sequences of two flagellin genes in Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. alesti.

Two highly homologous flagellin genes, flaA and flaB, are expressed in Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. alesti. Both genes were found to be transcribed during vegetative growth. After the onset of sporulation, transcripts could not be detected. Both flaA and flaB were found to be transcribed from sigma70-like promoters. In addition, the 3'-terminal half of flaA was cloned and sequenced, completing the sequence of flaA.