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Controllability analysis of protein glycosylation in CHO cells.

ABSTRACT: To function as intended in vivo, a majority of biopharmaceuticals require specific glycan distributions. However, achieving a precise glycan distribution during manufacturing can be challenging because glycosylation is a non-template driven cellular process, with the potential for significant uncontrolled variability in glycan distributions. As important as the glycan distribution is to the end-use performance of biopharmaceuticals, to date, no strategy exists for controlling glycosylation on-line. However, before expending the significant amount of effort and expense required to develop and implement on-line control strategies to address the problem of glycosylation heterogeneity, it is imperative to assess first the extent to which the very complex process of glycosylation is controllable, thereby establishing what is theoretically achievable prior to any experimental attempts. In this work, we present a novel methodology for assessing the output controllability of glycosylation, a prototypical example of an extremely high-dimensional and very non-linear system. We first discuss a method for obtaining the process gain matrix for glycosylation that involves performing model simulations and data analysis systematically and judiciously according to a statistical design of experiments (DOE) scheme and then employing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine the elements of process gain matrix from the resulting simulation data. We then discuss how to use the resulting high-dimensional gain matrix to assess controllability. The utility of this method is demonstrated with a practical example where we assess the controllability of various classes of glycans and of specific glycoforms that are typically found in recombinant biologics produced with Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. In addition to providing useful insight into the extent to which on-line glycosylation control is achievable in actual manufacturing processes, the results also have important implications for genetically engineering cell lines design for enhanced glycosylation controllability.

SUBMITTER: St Amand MM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3912168 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Controllability analysis of protein glycosylation in CHO cells.

St Amand Melissa M MM Tran Kevin K Radhakrishnan Devesh D Robinson Anne S AS Ogunnaike Babatunde A BA

PloS one 20140203 2

To function as intended in vivo, a majority of biopharmaceuticals require specific glycan distributions. However, achieving a precise glycan distribution during manufacturing can be challenging because glycosylation is a non-template driven cellular process, with the potential for significant uncontrolled variability in glycan distributions. As important as the glycan distribution is to the end-use performance of biopharmaceuticals, to date, no strategy exists for controlling glycosylation on-li ...[more]

PMID: 24498415

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Project description:Since 2015 more than 34 biosimilars have been approved by the FDA. This new era of biosimilar competition has stimulated renewed technology development focused on therapeutic protein or biologic manufacturing. One challenge in biosimilar development is the genetic differences in the host cell lines used to manufacture the biologics. For example, many biologics approved between 1994 and 2011 were expressed in murine NS0 and SP2/0 cell lines. Chinese Hamster ovary (CHO) cells, however, have since become the preferred hosts for production due to their increased productivity, ease of use, and stability. Differences between murine and hamster glycosylation have been identified in biologics produced using murine and CHO cells. In the case of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), glycan structure can significantly affect critical antibody effector function, binding activity, stability, efficacy, and in vivo half-life. In an attempt to leverage the intrinsic advantages of the CHO expression system and match the reference biologic murine glycosylation, we engineered a CHO cell expressing an antibody that was originally produced in a murine cell line to produce murine-like glycans. Specifically, we overexpressed cytidine monophospho-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase (CMAH) and N-acetyllactosaminide alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase (GGTA) to obtain glycans with N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) and galactose-α-1,3-galactose (alpha gal). The resulting CHO cells were shown to produce mAbs with murine glycans, and they were then analyzed by the spectrum of analytical methods typically used to demonstrate analytical similarity as a part of demonstrating biosimilarity. This included high-resolution mass spectrometry, biochemical, as well as cell-based assays. Through selection and optimization in fed-batch cultures, two CHO cell clones were identified with similar growth and productivity criteria to the original cell line. They maintained stable production for 65 population doubling times while matching the glycosylation profile and function of the reference product expressed in murine cells. This study demonstrates the feasibility of engineering CHO cells to express mAbs with murine glycans to facilitate the development of biosimilars that are highly similar to marketed reference products expressed in murine cells. Furthermore, this technology can potentially reduce the residual uncertainty regarding biosimilarity, resulting in a higher probability of regulatory approval and potentially reduced costs and time in development.

Project description:The α1,6-fucosyltransferase (encoded by FUT8 gene) is the key enzyme transferring fucose to the innermost GlcNAc residue on an N-glycan through an α-1,6 linkage in the mammalian cells. The presence of core fucose on antibody Fc region can inhibit antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and reduce antibody therapeutic efficiency in vivo. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the predominant production platform in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Therefore, the generation of FUT8 knock-out (FUT8KO) CHO cell line is favorable and can be applied to produce completely non-fucosylated antibodies. The characterization of monoclonal antibodies as well as host cell glycoprotein impurities are required for quality control purposes under regulation rules. To understand the role of FUT8 in the glycosylation of CHO cells, we generated a FUT8 knock-out CHO cell line and performed a large-scale glycoproteomics to characterize the FUT8KO and wild-type (WT) CHO cells. The glycopeptides were enriched by hydrophilic chromatography and fractionated 25 fractions by bRPLC followed by analysis using high-resolution liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). A total of 7,127 unique N-linked glycosite-containing intact glycopeptides (IGPs), 928 glycosites, and 442 glycoproteins were identified from FUT8KO and WT CHO cells. Moreover, 28.62% in 442 identified glycoproteins and 26.69% in 928 identified glycosites were significantly changed in the FUT8KO CHO compared to wild-type CHO cells. The relative abundance of all the three N-glycan types (high-mannose, hybrid, and complex) was determined in FUT8KO comparing to wild-type CHO cells. Furthermore, a decrease in fucosylation content was observed in FUT8KO cells, in which core-fucosylated glycans almost disappeared as an effect of FUT8 gene knockout. Meantime, a total of 51 glycosylation-related enzymes were also quantified in these two cell types and 16 of them were significantly altered in the FUT8KO cells, in which sialyltransferases and glucosyltransferases were sharply decreased. These glycoproteomic results revealed that the knock-out of FUT8 not only influenced the core-fucosylation of proteins but also altered other glycosylation synthesis processes and changed the relative abundance of protein glycosylation.

Project description:Therapeutic glycoproteins have played a major role in the commercial success of biotechnology in the post-genomic era. But isolating recombinant mammalian cell lines for large-scale production remains costly and time-consuming, due to substantial variation and unpredictable stability of expression amongst transfected cells, requiring extensive clone screening to identify suitable high producers. Streamlining this process is of considerable interest to industry yet the underlying phenomena are still not well understood. Here we examine an antibody-expressing Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) clone at single-cell resolution using flow cytometry and vectors, which couple light and heavy chain transcription to fluorescent markers. Expression variation has traditionally been attributed to genetic heterogeneity arising from random genomic integration of vector DNA. It follows that single cell cloning should yield a homogeneous cell population. We show, in fact, that expression in a clone can be surprisingly heterogeneous (standard deviation 50 to 70% of the mean), approaching the level of variation in mixed transfectant pools, and each antibody chain varies in tandem. Phenotypic variation is fully developed within just 18 days of cloning, yet is not entirely explained by measurement noise, cell size, or the cell cycle. By monitoring the dynamic response of subpopulations and subclones, we show that cells also undergo slow stochastic fluctuations in expression (half-life 2 to 11 generations). Non-genetic diversity may therefore play a greater role in clonal variation than previously thought. This also has unexpected implications for expression stability. Stochastic gene expression noise and selection bias lead to perturbations from steady state at the time of cloning. The resulting transient response as clones reestablish their expression distribution is not ordinarily accounted for but can contribute to declines in median expression over timescales of up to 50 days. Noise minimization may therefore be a novel strategy to reduce apparent expression instability and simplify cell line selection.

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Controllability analysis of protein glycosylation in CHO cells.

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Controllability analysis of protein glycosylation in CHO cells.

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