用于重组抗体生产的细胞大规模培养技术

近年来,用于单抗药物生产的动物细胞大规模培养技术发展迅速.此领域的技术进展集中在个性化培养基开发,工艺条件优化等方面.本文总结了用于提高重组抗体表达水平的常用方法,以及细胞培养工艺对抗体药物“关键质量属性”(聚体、降解、糖基化修饰、电荷变异等)的诸多影响.此外,细胞培养工艺在产业化过程面临着工艺放大与技术转移,定性研究与工艺验证等实际问题.未来大规模细胞培养工艺的开发,将进一步借助动物细胞的组学研究成果和新兴的“过程分析技术”.     

重组单克隆抗体电荷异质性和工艺调控

重组单克隆抗体药物大多存在翻译后修饰且种类复杂多样,因此研发过程中的质量控制显得尤为重要。其中电荷异质性是关键质量属性,其可能影响生物制品的疗效,甚至有可能带来意想不到的副作用,从而影响药品的安全性和有效性,所以在单抗药物开发过程中需要重点关注并加以调控。单抗药物翻译后修饰是造成电荷异质性的主要原因,因此电荷异质性的控制是生物药物工艺开发的一个重要挑战。梳理了电荷异质性的表征方法,并且根据其分类对能够造成电荷异质性产生的蛋白翻译后修饰进行了总结,同时阐述了不同的电荷异质性对抗体类药物安全性及有效性的影响,最后总结了工艺开发中电荷异质性工艺调控策略的最新进展,以期给生物药物工艺开发及质量研究人员以启示。     

确定性筛选设计优化双特异性抗体细胞培养工艺

[目的]旨在快速优化双特异性抗体细胞培养工艺参数,提高蛋白表达量,改善产品关键质量属性.[方法]应用确定性筛选实验设计研究工艺参数(接种密度、培养温度和流加策略)对细胞生长、蛋白表达及关键质量属性(电荷异质性、聚体和高甘露糖型)的影响,利用一步法找出最佳工艺条件,然后放大至2L生物反应器进行工艺验证.[结果]应用JMP...     

细胞培养过程对单克隆抗体糖基化修饰的影响和调控

在单克隆抗体药生产过程中,其糖基化修饰可能受到多种工艺参数的影响,因而容易产生异质性,并且抗体糖基化和抗体半衰期、免疫源性、ADCC、CDC等密切相关,所以单克隆抗体的糖基化修饰是重要的质量属性,需要在生物药尤其是生物类似药开发过程中重点关注,并加以调控。通过概述培养过程中的细胞株、培养工艺,以及培养基对糖型的影响,讨论如何在工艺开发过程开展研究,确保产品糖基化的一致性,从而保证单抗药物的疗效及安全性。     

细胞培养过程对单克隆抗体糖基化修饰的影响和调控

在单克隆抗体药生产过程中,其糖基化修饰可能受到多种工艺参数的影响,因而容易产生异质性,并且抗体糖基化和抗体半衰期、免疫源性、ADCC、CDC等密切相关,所以单克隆抗体的糖基化修饰是重要的质量属性,需要在生物药尤其是生物类似药开发过程中重点关注,并加以调控。通过概述培养过程中的细胞株、培养工艺,以及培养基对糖型的影响,讨论如何在工艺开发过程开展研究,确保产品糖基化的一致性,从而保证单抗药物的疗效及安全性。     

抗体类药物非聚糖翻译后修饰的LC-MS表征分析

抗体类药物往往存在复杂多样的翻译后修饰(post-translational modifications, PTMs),由此产生高度的异质性。PTMs表征是抗体类药物研发的重要组成部分。尤其在早期研发阶段,高质量的结构表征可以为药物筛选、药物发现、工艺开发和优化提供指引和依据。基于液相色谱-质谱联用(LC-MS)技术的表征分析手段可快速、准确地识别PTMs,已成为抗体类药物PTMs分析及结构表征的有力工具。该文综述了抗体类药物非聚糖PTMs的鉴定成果,内容包括修饰类型、修饰位点、修饰所在区域、表达系统信息及潜在影响,并对LC-MS表征分析策略进行了一定的探讨,希望为抗体类药物早期研发阶段的表征分析提供参考。综述的非聚糖PTMs均通过LC-MS或LC-MS/MS技术得到了鉴定。     

单克隆抗体生产过程中二硫键还原成因及预防方法

单克隆抗体生产过程中二硫键的还原是生物制药领域中的一个常见技术难题,可产生低分子量碎片,影响产品质量,导致蛋白纯度降低、稳定性下降,影响药物的安全性和有效性。抗体二硫键还原实质上是由细胞内的硫氧还蛋白系统和谷胱甘肽系统引起的可逆氧化还原反应,并与具体生产过程参数有关。近年来,随着抗体药物和哺乳动物细胞培养工艺规模的发展,二硫键还原问题频繁发生。为解决此问题,研究人员不断尝试并建立了多种预防方法以保证产品质量。概述了抗体二硫键结构、二硫键还原的主要成因及生产过程中的形成因素,重点阐述了消除或减缓抗体二硫键还原的方法、对策,并列举了几种可行的过程分析技术,以期为单克隆抗体药物生产制造工艺的进一步优化提供参考。     

离子交换色谱法在抗EGFR单克隆抗体检测中的应用

抗EGFR单克隆抗体是治疗结肠癌的靶向药物,该抗体明确的结构确认,无论是开发还是研究都有重大意义。在对抗EGFR单克隆抗体检测过程中,异质性检测已经成为不可缺少的项目。本文通过离子交换色谱法对抗EGFR单克隆抗体进行异质性分析,为抗EGFR单克隆抗体检测提供新的方法和手段。     

改善抗体生产效率

西雅图遗传系统公司开发了一种能改善人单克隆抗体生产的技术。据该公司称这一技术提高了找出大量合适细胞类型的几率。这一技术与加州埃墨里维尔喀特生物公司开发的增强细胞培养和抗体收获工艺相结合,亦打开了生产足够用于治疗的大量抗体的大门。     

治疗性抗体半衰期改造研究进展

随着治疗性单克隆抗体在临床治疗方面发挥的作用日益突显,其全球药物市场所占份额和研发投入均在逐年增加。除了抗体新药的开发,抗体药物效力和安全性相关的基因工程改造也越来越受到重视。在这些基因工程改造中,抗体半衰期改造已成为近年来研究的热点之一。对几种抗体半衰期改造技术进行了介绍,并简要描述了半衰期改造后抗体的临床研究现状。     

CHO细胞株开发技术策略探讨

主要介绍了单克隆抗体药物工业生产中宿主细胞选择、表达载体构建、转染方法、筛选技术、细胞培养工艺技术方法以及最后选定细胞株的标准等,结合单抗药物CHO细胞株开发和培养工艺的经验,对当前我国单抗CHO细胞株开发技术策略进行了探讨。     

Simultaneous monitoring of oxidation,deamidation, isomerization,and glycosylation of monoclonal antibodies by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method with ultrafast tryptic digestion

Monoclonal antibodies are subjected to a wide variety of post-translational modifications (PTMs) that cause structural heterogeneity. Characterization and control of these modifications or quality attributes are critical to ensure antibody quality and to define any potential effects on the ultimate safety and potency of antibody therapeutics. The biopharmaceutical industry currently uses numerous tools to analyze these quality attributes individually, which requires substantial time and resources. Here, we report a simple and ultrafast bottom-up liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (uLC-MS) method with 5 min tryptic digestion to simultaneously analyze multiple modifications, including oxidation, deamidation, isomerization, glycation, glycosylation, and N-terminal pyro-glutamate formation, which can occur during antibody production in mammalian cell culture, during purification and/or on storage. Compared to commonly used preparation procedures, this uLC-MS method eliminates assay artifacts of falsely-increased Met oxidation, Asp isomerization, and Asn deamidation, a problem associated with long digestion times in conventional LC-MS methods. This simple, low artifact multi-attribute uLC-MS method can be used to quickly and accurately analyze samples at any stage of antibody drug development, in particular for clone and media selection during cell culture development.     

A 24-microwell plate with improved mixing and scalable performance for high throughput cell cultures

Multi-well plates are widely used in high throughput drug screening, cell clone development, media design and cell culture optimization in the biotechnology industry. The reproducibility and data quality of cell cultures in multi-well plates are greatly affected by mixing, aeration, and evaporation. A novel 24-microwell plate (MWP) with static mixers for improved mixing and aeration, and gas permeable lids for reduced evaporation was developed for cell cultures. Mixing, oxygen transfer, evaporation, and cell proliferation as affected by the static mixer, shape of the well and agitation rate were studied. The static mixer improved mixing pattern and reduced cell aggregation under orbital shaking conditions. Consequently, the static mixer also improved cell proliferation with a significantly higher specific growth rate in round wells. In general, consistent growth kinetics was observed for cells cultured on the plate. Overall, the MWP improved the data quality with smaller standard deviations and better reproducibility. Furthermore, CHO cells cultured in the MWP gave similar kinetics in glucose consumption, lactate production, cell growth and viability, and antibody production in a serum-free medium to those cultured in spinner flasks, demonstrating its scalable performance and potential application in high throughput screening for cell culture process development.     

Modulation of mAb quality attributes using microliter scale fed‐batch cultures

A high‐throughput DoE approach performed in a 96‐deepwell plate system was used to explore the impact of media and feed components on main quality attributes of a monoclonal antibody. Six CHO‐S derived clonal cell lines expressing the same monoclonal antibody were tested in two different cell culture media with six components added at three different levels. The resulting 384 culture conditions including controls were simultaneously tested in fed‐batch conditions, and process performance such as viable cell density, viability, and product titer were monitored. At the end of the culture, supernatants from each condition were purified and the product was analyzed for N‐glycan profiles, charge variant distribution, aggregates, and low molecular weight forms. The screening described here provided highly valuable insights into the factors and combination of factors that can be used to modulate the quality attributes of a molecule. The approach also revealed specific intrinsic differences of the selected clonal cell lines ‐ some cell lines were very responsive in terms of changes in performance or quality attributes, whereas others were less affected by the factors tested in this study. Moreover, it indicated to what extent the attributes can be impacted within the selected experimental design space. The outcome correlated well with confirmations performed in larger cell culture volumes such as small‐scale bioreactors. Being fast and resource effective, this integrated high‐throughput approach can provide information which is particularly useful during early stage cell culture development. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 30:571–583, 2014     

Probing of C-terminal lysine variation in a recombinant monoclonal antibody production using Chinese hamster ovary cells with chemically defined media

C-terminal lysine (C-K) variants are commonly observed in therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins. Heterogeneity of C-K residues is believed to result from varying degree of proteolysis by endogenous carboxypeptidase(s) during cell culture production. The achievement of batch-to-batch culture performance and product quality reproducibility is a key cell culture development criterion. Understanding the operational parameters affecting C-K levels provides valuable insight into the cell culture process. A CHO cell line X expressing a recombinant antibody was selected as the model cell line due to the exhibited sensitivity of its C-K level to the process conditions. A weak cation exchange chromatography (WCX) method with or without carboxypeptidase B (CpB) treatment was developed to monitor the C-K level for in-process samples. The effects of operating conditions (i.e., temperature and culture duration) and media trace elements (copper and zinc) on C-K variants were studied. The dominant effect on C-K level was identified as the trace elements concentration. Specifically, increased C-K levels were observed with increase of copper concentration and decrease of zinc concentration in chemically defined medium. Further, a hypothesis for C-K processing with intracellular and extracellular carboxypeptidase activity was proposed, based on preliminary intracellular carboxypeptidase Western blot results and the extracellular HCCF holding study.     

Cell culture media impact on drug product solution stability

To enable subcutaneous administration of monoclonal antibodies, drug product solutions are often needed at high concentrations. A significant risk associated with high drug product concentrations is an increase in aggregate level over the shelf‐life dating period. While much work has been done to understand the impact of drug product formulation on aggregation, there is limited understanding of the link between cell culture process conditions and soluble aggregate growth in drug product. During cell culture process development, soluble aggregates are often measured at harvest using cell‐free material purified by Protein A chromatography. In the work reported here, cell culture media components were evaluated with respect to their impact on aggregate levels in high concentration solution drug product during accelerated stability studies. Two components, cysteine and ferric ammonium citrate, were found to impact aggregate growth rates in our current media (version 1) leading to the development of new chemically defined media and concentrated feed formulations. The new version of media and associated concentrated feeds (version 2) were evaluated across four cell lines producing recombinant IgG₄ monoclonal antibodies and a bispecific antibody. In all four cell lines, the version 2 media reduced aggregate growth over the course of a 12 week accelerated stability study compared with the version 1 media, although the degree to which aggregate growth decreased was cell line dependent. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:998–1008, 2016     

A high‐yielding CHO transient system: Coexpression of genes encoding EBNA‐1 and GS enhances transient protein expression

An efficient rapid protein expression system is crucial to support early drug development. Transient gene expression is an effective route, and to facilitate the use of the same host cells as for subsequent stable cell line development, we have created a high‐yielding Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) transient expression system. Suspension‐adapted CHO‐K1 host cells were engineered to express the gene encoding Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen‐1 (EBNA‐1) with and without the coexpression of the gene for glutamine synthetase (GS). Analysis of the transfectants indicated that coexpression of EBNA‐1 and GS enhanced transient expression of a recombinant antibody from a plasmid carrying an OriP DNA element compared to EBNA‐1‐only transfectants. This was confirmed with the retransfection of an EBNA‐1‐only cell line with a GS gene. The retransfected cell lines showed an increase in transient expression when compared with that of the EBNA‐1‐only parent. The transient expression process for the best CHO transient cell line was further developed to enhance protein expression and improve scalability by optimizing the transfection conditions and the cell culture process. This resulted in a scalable CHO transient expression system that is capable of expressing 2 g/L of recombinant proteins such as antibodies. This system can now rapidly provide gram amounts of recombinant antibody to supply preclinical development studies that has comparable product quality to antibody produced from a stably transfected CHO cell line. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 30:132–141, 2014     

Improving culture performance and antibody production in CHO cell culture processes by reducing the Warburg effect

Lactate is one of the key waste metabolites of mammalian cell culture. High lactate levels are caused by high aerobic glycolysis, also known as the Warburg effect, and are usually associated with adverse culture performance. Therefore, reducing lactate accumulation has been an ongoing challenge in the cell culture development to improve growth, productivity, and process robustness. The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC) plays a crucial role for the fate of pyruvate, as it converts pyruvate to acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl‐CoA). The PDC activity can be indirectly increased by inhibiting the PDC inhibitor, pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase, using dichloroacetate (DCA), resulting in less pyruvate being available for lactate formation. Here, Chinese hamster ovary cells were cultivated either with 5 mM DCA or without DCA in various batch and fed‐batch bioreactor processes. In all cultures, DCA increased peak viable cell density (VCD), culture length and final antibody titer. The strongest effect was observed in a fed batch with media and glucose feeding in which peak VCD was increased by more than 50%, culture length was extended by more than 3 days, and the final antibody titer increased by more than twofold. In cultures with DCA, lactate production and glucose consumption during exponential growth were on average reduced by approximately 40% and 35%, respectively. Metabolic flux analysis showed reduced glycolytic fluxes, whereas fluxes in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle were not affected, suggesting that cultures with DCA use glucose more efficiently. In a proteomics analysis, only few proteins were identified as being differentially expressed, indicating that DCA acts on a posttranslational level. Antibody quality in terms of aggregation, charge variant, and glycosylation pattern was unaffected. Subsequent bioreactor experiments with sodium lactate and sodium chloride feeding indicated that lower osmolality, rather than lower lactate concentration itself, improved culture performance in DCA cultures. In conclusion, the addition of DCA to the cell culture improved culture performance and increased antibody titers without any disadvantages for cell‐specific productivity or antibody quality.