Distributed automated manufacturing of pluripotent stem cell products.

Establishing how to effectively manufacture cell therapies is an industry-level problem. Decentralised manufacturing is of increasing importance, and its challenges are recognised by healthcare regulators with deviations and comparability issues receiving specific attention from them. This paper is the first to report the deviations and other risks encountered when implementing the expansion of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in an automated three international site-decentralised manufacturing setting. An experimental demonstrator project expanded a human embryonal carcinoma cell line (2102Ep) at three development sites in France, Germany and the UK using the CompacT SelecT (Sartorius Stedim, Royston, UK) automated cell culture platform. Anticipated variations between sites spanned material input, features of the process itself and production system details including different quality management systems and personnel. Where possible, these were pre-addressed by implementing strategies including standardisation, cell bank mycoplasma testing and specific engineering and process improvements. However, despite such measures, unexpected deviations occurred between sites including software incompatibility and machine/process errors together with uncharacteristic contaminations. Many only became apparent during process proving or during the process run. Further, parameters including growth rate and viability discrepancies could only be determined post-run, preventing 'live' corrective measures. The work confirms the critical nature of approaches usually taken in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) manufacturing settings and especially emphasises the requirement for monitoring steps to be included within the production system. Real-time process monitoring coupled with carefully structured quality systems is essential for multiple site working including clarity of decision-making roles. Additionally, an over-reliance upon post-process visual microscopic comparisons has major limitations; it is difficult for non-experts to detect deleterious culture changes and such detection is slow.

Automation of human pluripotent stem cell differentiation toward retinal pigment epithelial cells for large-scale productions.

Dysfunction or death of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells is involved in some forms of Retinitis Pigmentosa and in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Since there is no cure for most patients affected by these diseases, the transplantation of RPE cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represents an attractive therapeutic alternative. First attempts to transplant hPSC-RPE cells in AMD and Stargardt patients demonstrated the safety and suggested the potential efficacy of this strategy. However, it also highlighted the need to upscale the production of the cells to be grafted in order to treat the millions of potential patients. Automated cell culture systems are necessary to change the scale of cell production. In the present study, we developed a protocol amenable for automation that combines in a sequential manner Nicotinamide, Activin A and CHIR99021 to direct the differentiation of hPSCs into RPE cells. This novel differentiation protocol associated with the use of cell culture robots open new possibilities for the production of large batches of hPSC-RPE cells while maintaining a high cell purity and functionality. Such methodology of cell culture automation could therefore be applied to various differentiation processes in order to generate the material suitable for cell therapy.

Preactivated oxazaphosphorines designed for isophosphoramide mustard delivery as bulk form or nanoassemblies: synthesis and proof of concept.

Oxazaphosphorines are alkylating agents used in routine clinical practices for treatment of cancer for many years. They are antitumor prodrugs that require cytochrome P450 bioactivation leading to 4-hydroxy derivatives. In the case of ifosfamide (IFO), the bioactivation produces two toxic metabolites: acrolein, a urotoxic compound, concomitantly generated with the isophosphoramide mustard; and chloroacetaldehyde, a neurotoxic and nephrotoxic compound, arising from the oxidation of the side chains. To improve the therapeutic index of IFO, we have designed preactivated IFO derivatives with the covalent binding of several O- and S-alkyl moieties including polyisoprenoid groups at the C-4 position of the oxazaphosphorine ring to avoid cytochrome bioactivation favoring the release of the active entity and limiting the chloroacetaldehyde release. Thanks to the grafted terpene moieties, some of these new conjugates demonstrated spontaneous self-assembling properties into nanoassemblies when dispersed in water. The cytotoxic activities on a panel of human tumor cell lines of these novel oxazaphosphorines, in bulk form or as nanoassemblies, and the release of 4-hydroxy-IFO from these preactivated IFO analogues in plasma are reported.

Robust, efficient, and practical electrogene transfer method for human mesenchymal stem cells using square electric pulses.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent nonhematopoietic cells with the ability to differentiate into various specific cell types, thus holding great promise for regenerative medicine. Early clinical trials have proven that MSC-based therapy is safe, with possible efficacy in various diseased states. Moreover, genetic modification of MSCs to improve their function can be safely achieved using electrogene transfer. We previously achieved transfection efficiencies of up to 32% with preserved viability in rat MSCs. In this study, we further improved the transfection efficiency and transgene expression in human MSCs (hMSCs), while preserving the cells viability and ability to differentiate into osteoblasts and adipocytes by increasing the plasmid concentration and altering the osmotic pressure of the electrotransfer buffer. Using a square-wave electric pulse generator, we achieved a transfection efficiency of more than 80%, with around 70% viability and a detectable transgene expression of up to 30 days. Moreover, we demonstrated that this transfection efficiency can be reproduced reliably on two different sources of hMSCs: the bone marrow and adipose tissue. We also showed that there was no significant donor variability in terms of their transfection efficiency and viability. The cell confluency before electrotransfer had no significant effect on the transfection efficiency and viability. Cryopreservation of transfected cells maintained their transgene expression and viability upon thawing. In summary, we are reporting a robust, safe, and efficient protocol of electrotransfer for hMSCs with several practical suggestions for an optimal use of genetically engineered hMSCs for clinical application.