Use of a small molecule cell cycle inhibitor to control cell growth and improve specific productivity and product quality of recombinant proteins in CHO cell cultures.

The continued need to improve therapeutic recombinant protein productivity has led to ongoing assessment of appropriate strategies in the biopharmaceutical industry to establish robust processes with optimized critical variables, that is, viable cell density (VCD) and specific productivity (product per cell, qP). Even though high VCD is a positive factor for titer, uncontrolled proliferation beyond a certain cell mass is also undesirable. To enable efficient process development to achieve consistent and predictable growth arrest while maintaining VCD, as well as improving qP, without negative impacts on product quality from clone to clone, we identified an approach that directly targets the cell cycle G1-checkpoint by selectively inhibiting the function of cyclin dependent kinases (CDK) 4/6 with a small molecule compound. Results from studies on multiple recombinant Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines demonstrate that the selective inhibitor can mediate a complete and sustained G0/G1 arrest without impacting G2/M phase. Cell proliferation is consistently and rapidly controlled in all recombinant cell lines at one concentration of this inhibitor throughout the production processes with specific productivities increased up to 110 pg/cell/day. Additionally, the product quality attributes of the mAb, with regard to high molecular weight (HMW) and glycan profile, are not negatively impacted. In fact, high mannose is decreased after treatment, which is in contrast to other established growth control methods such as reducing culture temperature. Microarray analysis showed major differences in expression of regulatory genes of the glycosylation and cell cycle signaling pathways between these different growth control methods. Overall, our observations showed that cell cycle arrest by directly targeting CDK4/6 using selective inhibitor compound can be utilized consistently and rapidly to optimize process parameters, such as cell growth, qP, and glycosylation profile in recombinant antibody production cultures.

Molecular and functional characterization of cynomolgus monkey IgG subclasses.

Studies for vaccine and human therapeutic Ab development in cynomolgus monkeys (cynos) are influenced by immune responses, with Ab responses playing a significant role in efficacy and immunogenicity. Understanding the nature of cyno humoral immune responses and characterizing the predominant cyno IgG types produced and the Fc-FcγR interactions could provide insight into the immunomodulatory effects of vaccines. Anti-drug Ab responses against human IgG therapeutic candidates in cynos may affect efficacy and safety assessments because of the formation of immune complexes. There is, however, limited information on the structure and function of cyno IgG subclasses and how they compare with human IgG subclasses in Fc-dependent effector functions. To analyze the functional nature of cyno IgG subclasses, we cloned four cyno IgG C regions by using their sequence similarity to other primate IgGs. The four clones, cyno (cy)IGG1, cyIGG2, cyIGG3, cyIGG4, were then used to construct chimeric Abs. The sequence features of cyno IgG subclasses were compared with those of rhesus monkey and human IgG. Our data show that rhesus monkey and cyno IgG C regions are generally highly conserved, with differences in the hinge and hinge-proximal CH2 regions. Fc-dependent effector functions of cyno IgG subclasses were assessed in vitro with a variety of binding and functional assays. Our findings demonstrate distinctive functional properties of cyno IgG subclasses. It is notable that human IgG1 was less potent than cyno IgG1 in cyno FcγR binding and effector functions, with the differences emphasizing the need to carefully interpret preclinical data obtained with human IgG1 therapeutics.

Factors that determine stability of highly concentrated chemically defined production media.

High cell density perfusion processes for the production of therapeutic antibodies require large volumes of media to meet cellular stoichiometric and energy demands. The use of media concentrates provides a way to reduce the cost of manufacturing. Reducing the number and size of liquid media batches reduces the media footprint in the manufacturing plant and cuts costs associated with single-use systems for preparation and storage of liquid media. Concentrates that can be stored at room temperature also reduce costs by eliminating the need for refrigerated storage. To meet these economic and operational objectives, we developed a complete concentrated medium system consisting of a 5X medium concentrate that can be used in conjunction with a concentrated supplement of cystine, tyrosine, and folic acid. The effects of pyruvate, bicarbonate, and glutamine on the stability of the 5X concentrates were studied. Pyruvate and bicarbonate were found to have profound impacts on media stability, including media coloration, precipitate formation and ability to support cell culture. Bicarbonate was found to have detrimental effects in 5X concentrated media, resulting in precipitation of pyruvate-free media and accelerated glutamine degradation. Pyruvate prevented precipitation in bicarbonate-containing concentrates. Moreover, the presence of pyruvate in bicarbonate-free, glutamine-free 5X concentrates resulted in the substantial preservation of the functional activity of the medium for 1 month at room temperature.

Real-time product attribute control to manufacture antibodies with defined N-linked glycan levels.

Pressures for cost-effective new therapies and an increased emphasis on emerging markets require technological advancements and a flexible future manufacturing network for the production of biologic medicines. The safety and efficacy of a product is crucial, and consistent product quality is an essential feature of any therapeutic manufacturing process. The active control of product quality in a typical biologic process is challenging because of measurement lags and nonlinearities present in the system. The current study uses nonlinear model predictive control to maintain a critical product quality attribute at a predetermined value during pilot scale manufacturing operations. This approach to product quality control ensures a more consistent product for patients, enables greater manufacturing efficiency, and eliminates the need for extensive process characterization by providing direct measures of critical product quality attributes for real time release of drug product.

EASE vectors for rapid stable expression of recombinant antibodies.

Over the past 10 years, monoclonal antibodies and antibody fragments have become an increasingly important source of therapeutic molecules in the biotechnology industry. Drug development strategies rely on screening large numbers of candidate molecules in search of an optimized drug candidate. This strategy requires efficient production of ten to a few hundred milligrams of candidate molecules for screening in bioassays and animal models. Typically, this amount of recombinant protein expression involves large numbers of transient transfections or cloning of a recombinant cell line. Both of these approaches are time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this report, we describe the application of an EASE vector system that is capable of generating stable pools of transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells. These pooled populations of cells produce high quantities of antibody candidates without labor-intensive cloning in a 3-5 week time frame. When an optimal drug candidate has been selected, pools generated with EASE-containing vectors can also be used in subsequent cloning steps to make cell lines with improved expression levels. We demonstrate that EASE increases expression in nonamplified pools in addition to increasing amplification and viability of clonal cell lines generated with the EASE-containing vectors compared with pools and cell lines generated without EASE.

Over-expression of protein kinase Balpha enhances recombinant protein expression in transient systems.

As more genes are being identified through genomic techniques,the need to rapidly express recombinant proteins for functionalstudies has become increasingly acute. Transient expression ofrecombinant protein using COS-1, CV-1 and 293 cells is widelyused to address this need. To improve the robustness of hostcells for transient expression, the effect of over-expression ofProtein Kinase Balpha has been explored. In this report wedemonstrate that over-expression of Protein Kinase Balpha canimprove transient recombinant protein expression 40% to >200%depending on the protein being expressed and the cell line used.