高通量灌流培养模型在生物工艺开发中的应用研究

近年来,连续型细胞培养由于其高单位体积产量、稳定的产品质量属性以及潜在的成本节约效应正成为生物大分子制药生产的工艺焦点。相比传统的流加培养模式,灌流培养因培养的连续性、操作的复杂性,致使其反应器规模培养需消耗大量培养基,产生更高人力成本,不能满足当今加速化高效化的工艺开发需求。为获得稳健的灌流培养工艺并控制较低成本,高通量灌流培养模型被用于批量化的小规模灌流培养,进行灌流培养前期的克隆筛选、培养基筛选及工艺参数优化等工作,为后期大规模培养提供实用性数据支持,同时也被用于预测大规模培养的细胞表型和产品质量属性。重点介绍了当前高通量系统包括摇瓶/摇管系统、多平行自动化系统以及微流控体系用作灌流培养的特征、具体应用及比较,同时论述当前高通量灌流培养系统在生物工艺领域发展所面临的机遇及挑战,并展望其应用前景。     

高通量灌流培养模型在生物工艺开发中的应用研究

近年来,连续型细胞培养由于其高单位体积产量、稳定的产品质量属性以及潜在的成本节约效应正成为生物大分子制药生产的工艺焦点。相比传统的流加培养模式,灌流培养因培养的连续性、操作的复杂性,致使其反应器规模培养需消耗大量培养基,产生更高人力成本,不能满足当今加速化高效化的工艺开发需求。为获得稳健的灌流培养工艺并控制较低成本,高通量灌流培养模型被用于批量化的小规模灌流培养,进行灌流培养前期的克隆筛选、培养基筛选及工艺参数优化等工作,为后期大规模培养提供实用性数据支持,同时也被用于预测大规模培养的细胞表型和产品质量属性。重点介绍了当前高通量系统包括摇瓶/摇管系统、多平行自动化系统以及微流控体系用作灌流培养的特征、具体应用及比较,同时论述当前高通量灌流培养系统在生物工艺领域发展所面临的机遇及挑战,并展望其应用前景。     

哺乳动物细胞灌流培养工艺开发与优化

近年来生物药市场需求量激增,高产量、高质量、低成本的哺乳动物细胞灌流培养工艺顺势成为工业界和学术界普遍关注的热点。文中围绕灌流培养工艺特有的操作环节及工艺优化应着重关注的细节展开论述,综述了近年来在灌流培养工艺开发和优化上取得的进步和提出的策略,以期为哺乳动物细胞灌流培养技术的开发提供参考。     

植物细胞培养生物反应器的种类特点及展望

生物反应器技术应用于植物细胞培养既可以打破环境条件的限制,又有助于生产过程的人为调控,为植物细胞大规模培养或工厂化直接生产植物细胞有用代谢产物创造了条件,是当前植物细胞培养工作的研究热点。在介绍植物细胞培养特点的基础上,对适用于植物细胞培养的各类生物反应器(搅拌式生物反应器、非搅拌式生物反应器、用于植物细胞固定化培养的生物反应器、光生物反应器以及一次性培养生物反应器)的原理、优缺点等进行比较分析,最后提出了植物细胞培养生物反应器研究的发展方向,以期为植物细胞培养生物反应器的选择及改良提供参考。     

高渗胁迫和灌流培养策略提高HEK 293细胞生产重组腺病毒载体产量

由于各种疾病在全球范围内的肆虐,国际市场对重组腺病毒载体(adenoviral vector,Adv)疫苗的需求量急剧增加,而工艺研究是解决这一问题的有效手段之一。在细胞接毒前施加高渗胁迫可以提高分批培养模式下的Adv产量,新兴的灌流培养也可以显著提高Adv的产量。将高渗胁迫工艺与灌流培养相结合,有望进一步提升高细胞密度生产过程中的Adv产量。本研究利用摇瓶结合拟灌流培养作为生物反应器灌流培养的缩小模型,使用渗透压为300–405 mOsm的培养基研究了高渗胁迫对细胞生长和Adv生产的影响。结果显示,在细胞生长阶段使用370 mOsm的高渗透压培养基,在病毒生产阶段使用300 mOsm的等渗透压培养基的灌流培养工艺有效地提高了Adv的产量。进一步研究发现这可能归因于病毒复制后期HSP70蛋白的表达量增加。将这种工艺放大至生物反应器中,Adv的产量达到3.2×10¹⁰ IFU/mL,是传统灌流培养工艺的3倍。本研究首次将高渗胁迫工艺与灌流培养相结合的策略应用于HEK 293细胞生产Adv,同时揭示了高渗胁迫工艺增产Adv的可能原因,为HEK 293细胞生产其他类型Adv的工艺优化提供了借鉴。     

用于重组蛋白生产的哺乳动物细胞表达新技术

近年来,用于重组蛋白生产的哺乳动物细胞表达领域涌现出一系列革命性的新技术。优化的工程细胞为表达重组蛋白提供了优良的宿主;基于荧光的筛选方法可以快捷地得到高表达细胞株;高通量的培养工艺能够预测适合外源蛋白表达的细胞培养条件;可抛弃式生物反应器为大规模细胞培养提供了更多的选择;大规模瞬时表达技术节省了重组蛋白的生产时间。这些新技术提高了重组蛋白的研发和生产效率,加快了蛋白药物的工业化进程。     

动物细胞大规模培养生产蛋白的工艺选择

目前全世界蛋白治疗药物的迅速增长和市场需求已远远超过了现有生产能力。动物细胞规模化生产重组蛋白和抗体的工艺选择可考虑使用当前较成熟的工业化支持技术平台,以缩短产品工艺研发的时间,加快工业化进程。当前被FDA批准的生物技术产品以及公开发表的生产工艺占有主流优势的是搅拌式生物反应器悬浮培养,工艺设计是流加或灌流培养。其大规模细胞培养生产所面临的挑战是获得最大生产力的同时注重维持产品的质量;去除所有培养环境中外源因子的污染,更为精确有效的工艺控制手段,规模化培养中氧气的限定与溶解CO2浓度累积的控制等。     

利用BIOSTAT~ STR一次性生物反应器实现大规模灌注培养与高密度分批补料培养

<正>灌注培养是一种众所周知的药物生产方法,多年来已被广泛的应用于许多生物技术药物的生产工艺中。最近,灌注培养还被用于高细胞密度的种子培养,以缩减放大到生产规模的种子培养步骤。随着细胞培养技术的不断改进,高密度补料分批培养与灌注培养的结合能够实现更高的细胞密度与产品表达浓度,因此,只需更小体积的生物反应器,便可生产治疗性蛋白质或抗体。细胞培养工艺开发能力越来越强,使用一次性反应器也将变得更具有优势,BIOSTATSRT一次性生物反应器能够提供最大可达2000L的生产规模,可以达到过去十至二十倍甚至更大的生物反应器才能实现的商业化生产规模。     

用改装的Ｓuper—Spinner搅拌瓶连续灌流培养产凝血酶原ＣＨＯ工程细胞

在动物细胞培养过程中对培养体系实施培基连续灌流能及时地补充细胞生长所需的营养物质、控制细胞代谢产物对细胞的影响 ,实现细胞的高密度长期培养 ,提高目的产品的生产效率[1,2 ] 。细胞连续灌流培养的前提是在实施培基连续灌流的同时培养体系能有效地截留细胞[3] 。这一前提增加了细胞培养装置的复杂程度 ,使之特化为价格昂贵的生物反应器 ,限制了细胞连续灌流培养的应用。如能通过对普通的细胞搅拌培养瓶进行改进 ,使之能用于细胞的连续灌流培养 ,则有利于细胞连续灌流培养的推广应用。1　材料和方法1 1　细胞产人重组凝血酶原ＣＨＯ工…     

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”.     

Process design and development of a mammalian cell perfusion culture in shake-tube and benchtop bioreactors

The development of mammalian cell perfusion cultures is still laborious and complex to perform due to the limited availability of scale-down models and limited knowledge of time- and cost-effective procedures. The maximum achievable viable cell density (VCD_max), minimum cell-specific perfusion rate (CSPR_min), cellular growth characteristics, and resulting bleed rate at steady-state operation are key variables for the effective development of perfusion cultures. In this study, we developed a stepwise procedure to use shake tubes (ST) in combination with benchtop (BR) bioreactors for the design of a mammalian cell perfusion culture at high productivity (23 pg·cell⁻¹·day⁻¹) and low product loss in the bleed (around 10%) for a given expression system. In a first experiment, we investigated peak VCDs in STs by the daily discontinuous medium exchange of 1 reactor volume (RV) without additional bleeding. Based on this knowledge, we performed steady-state cultures in the ST system using a working volume of 10 ml. The evaluation of the steady-state cultures allowed performing a perfusion bioreactor run at 20 × 10⁶ cells/ml at a perfusion rate of 1 RV/day. Constant cellular environment and metabolism resulted in stable product quality patterns. This study presents a promising strategy for the effective design and development of perfusion cultures for a given expression system and underlines the potential of the ST system as a valuable scale-down tool for perfusion cultures.     

Basal medium development for serum-free culture: a historical perspective

The evolution of basal synthetic formulations to support mammalian cell culture applications has been facilitated by the contributions of many investigators. Definition of minimally-required nutrient categories by Harry Eagle in the 1950's spawned an iterative process of continuous modification and refinement of the exogenous environment to cultivate new cell types and to support emerging applications of cultured mammalian cells. Key historical elements are traced, leading to the development of high potency, basal nutrient formulations capable of sustaining serum-free proliferation and biological production. Emerging techniques for alimentation of fed batch and continuous perfusion bioreactors, using partial nutrient concentrates deduced from spent medium analysis, can enhance medium utilization and bioreactor productivity.     

Glycosylation and post-translational modification gene expression analysis by DNA microarrays for cultured mammalian cells

DNA microarray analysis of gene expression has become a valuable tool for bioprocessing research aimed at improving therapeutic protein yields. The highly parallel nature of DNA microarray technology allows researchers to assess hundreds of gene simultaneously, essentially enabling genome-wide snapshots. The quality and amount of therapeutic proteins produced by cultured mammalian cells rely heavily on the culture environment. In order to implement beneficial changes to the culture environment, a better understanding of the relationship between the product quality and culture environment must be developed. By analyzing gene expression levels under various environmental conditions, light can be shed on the underlying mechanisms. This paper describes a method for evaluating gene expression changes for cultured NS0 cells, a mouse-derived myeloma cell line, under culture environment conditions, such as ammonia buildup, known to affect product quality. These procedures can be easily adapted to other environmental conditions and any mammalian cell lines cultured in suspension, so long as a sufficient number of gene sequences are publicly available.     

A novel scale-down mimic of perfusion cell culture using sedimentation in an automated microbioreactor (SAM)

Continuous upstream processing in mammalian cell culture for recombinant protein production holds promise to increase product yield and quality. To facilitate the design and optimization of large-scale perfusion cultures, suitable scale-down mimics are needed which allow high-throughput experiments to be performed with minimal raw material requirements. Automated microbioreactors are available that mimic batch and fed-batch processes effectively but these have not yet been adapted for perfusion cell culture. This article describes how an automated microbioreactor system (ambr15) can be used to scale-down perfusion cell cultures using cell sedimentation as the method for cell retention. The approach accurately predicts the viable cell concentration, in the range of about 1 × 10⁷ cells/mL for a human cell line, and cell viability of larger scale cultures using a hollow fiber based cell retention system. While it was found to underpredict cell line productivity, the method accurately predicts product quality attributes, including glycosylation profiles, from cultures performed in bioreactors with working volumes between 1 L and 1,000 L. The spent media exchange method using the ambr15 was found to predict the influence of different media formulations on large-scale perfusion cultures in contrast to batch and chemostat experiments performed in the microbioreactor system. The described experimental setup in the microbioreactor allowed an 80-fold reduction in cell culture media requirements, half the daily operator time, which can translate into a cost reduction of approximately 2.5-fold compared to a similar experimental setup at bench scale.     

Process intensification in fed-batch production bioreactors using non-perfusion seed cultures

ABSTRACT

Although process intensification by continuous operation has been successfully applied in the chemical industry, the biopharmaceutical industry primarily uses fed-batch, rather than continuous or perfusion methods, to produce stable monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Conventional fed-batch bioreactors may start with an inoculation viable cell density (VCD) of ~0.5 × 10⁶ cells/mL. Increasing the inoculation VCD in the fed-batch production bioreactor (referred to as N stage bioreactor) to 2–10 × 10⁶ cells/mL by introducing perfusion operation or process intensification at the seed step (N-1 step) prior to the production bioreactor has recently been used because it increases manufacturing output by shortening cell culture production duration. In this study, we report that increasing the inoculation VCD significantly improved the final titer in fed-batch production within the same 14-day duration for 3 mAbs produced by 3 CHO GS cell lines. We also report that other non-perfusion methods at the N-1 step using either fed batch or batch mode with enriched culture medium can similarly achieve high N-1 final VCD of 22–34 × 10⁶ cells/mL. These non-perfusion N-1 seeds supported inoculation of subsequent production fed-batch production bioreactors at increased inoculation VCD of 3–6 × 10⁶ cells/mL, where these achieved titer and product quality attributes comparable to those inoculated using the perfusion N-1 seeds demonstrated in both 5-L bioreactors, as well as scaled up to 500-L and 1000-L N-stage bioreactors. To operate the N-1 step using batch mode, enrichment of the basal medium was critical at both the N-1 and subsequent intensified fed-batch production steps. The non-perfusion N-1 methodologies reported here are much simpler alternatives in operation for process development, process characterization, and large-scale commercial manufacturing compared to perfusion N-1 seeds that require perfusion equipment, as well as preparation and storage vessels to accommodate large volumes of perfusion media. Although only 3 stable mAbs produced by CHO cell cultures are used in this study, the basic principles of the non-perfusion N-1 seed strategies for shortening seed train and production culture duration or improving titer should be applicable to other protein production by different mammalian cells and other hosts at any scale biologics facilities.     

Rapid intensification of an established CHO cell fed-batch process

Currently, the mammalian biomanufacturing industry explores process intensification (PI) to meet upcoming demands of biotherapeutics while keeping production flexible but, more importantly, as economic as possible. However, intensified processes often require more development time compared with conventional fed-batches (FBs) preventing their implementation. Hence, rapid and efficient, yet straightforward strategies for PI are needed. In this study we demonstrate such a strategy for the intensification of an N-stage FB by implementing N-1 perfusion cell culture and high inoculum cell densities resulting in a robust intensified FB (iFB). Furthermore, we show successful combination of such an iFB with the addition of productivity enhancers, which has not been reported so far. The conventional CHO cell FB process was step-wise improved and intensified rapidly in multi-parallel small-scale bioreactors using N-1 perfusion. The iFBs were performed in 15 and 250 ml bioreactors and allowed to evaluate the impact on key process indicators (KPI): the space–time yield (STY) was successfully doubled from 0.28 to 0.55 g/L d, while product quality was maintained. This gain was generated by initially increasing the inoculation density, thus shrinking process time, and second supplementation with butyric acid (BA), which reduced cell growth and enhanced cell-specific productivity from ~25 to 37 pg/(cell d). Potential impacts of PI on cell metabolism were evaluated using flux balance analysis. Initial metabolic differences between the standard and intensified process were observed but disappeared quickly. This shows that PI can be achieved rapidly for new as well as existing processes without introducing sustained changes in cellular and metabolic behavior.     

Engineering challenges in high density cell culture systems

High density cell culture systems offer the advantage of production of bio-pharmaceuticals in compact bioreactors with high volumetric production rates; however, these systems are difficult to design and operate. First of all, the cells have to be retained in the bioreactor by physical means during perfusion. The design of the cell retention is the key to performance of high density cell culture systems. Oxygenation and media design are also important for maximizing the cell number. In high density perfusion reactors, variable cell density, and hence the metabolic demand, require constant adjustment of perfusion rates. The use of cell specific perfusion rate (CSPR) control provides a constant environment to the cells resulting in consistent production. On-line measurement of cell density and metabolic activities can be used for the estimation of cell densities and the control of CSPR. Issues related to mass transfer and mixing become more important at high cell densities. Due to the difference in mass transfer coefficients for oxygen and CO₂, a significant accumulation of dissolved CO₂ is experienced with silicone tubing aeration. Also, mixing is observed to decrease at high densities. Base addition, if not properly done, could result in localized cell lysis and poor culture performance. Non-uniform mixing in reactors promotes the heterogeneity of the culture. Cell aggregation results in segregation of the cells within different mixing zones. This paper discusses these issues and makes recommendations for further development of high density cell culture bioreactors.     

Mammalian cell retention devices for stirred perfusion bioreactors

Within the spectrum of current applications for cell culture technologies, efficient large-scale mammalian cell production processes are typically carried out in stirred fed-batch or perfusion bioreactors. The specific aspects of each individual process that can be considered when determining the method of choice are presented. A major challenge for perfusion reactor design and operation is the reliability of the cell retention device. Current retention systems include cross-flow membrane filters, spin-filters, inclined settlers, continuous centrifuges and ultrasonic separators. The relative merits and limitations of these technologies for cell retention and their suitability for large-scale perfusion are discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High Yield of Human Monoclonal Antibody Produced by Stably Transfected Drosophila Schneider 2 Cells in Perfusion Culture Using Wave Bioreactor

Since it was first introduced in late 1990s Wave bioreactor has been used for protein production by mammalian and insect cell lines. However, using Wave bioreactor to produce human monoclonal antibody by stable Drosophila Schneider 2 (S2) cell transfectants has not been reported before. In this study, S2 cells were co-transfected with an inducible vector expressing human monoclonal antibody heavy and light chains, respectively, specific for hemagglutinin (HA) of H5N1 influenza virus. Stable S2 transfectant clone was selected by limiting dilution assay. Stable S2 transfectant clone that produce the highest amount of human monoclonal antibody was inoculated into two 2-l disposable cellbags, where cell growth and antibody production were compared between batch and perfusion cultures using Wave bioreactor. Here, we report that maximum viable cell density reached 1.06?×?10(7) cells/ml in batch culture; whereas 1.04?×?10(8)?cells/ml was achieved in perfusion culture. The maximum volumetric antibody productivity in batch culture was 52?mg/l/day; while perfusion culture yielded 1,437?mg/l/day. As a result, the total antibody production was 201?mg in batch culture and 8,212?mg in perfusion culture. The antibody produced by both cultures displays full neutralizing activity. Thus, our results provide strong support for using Wave bioreactor in perfusion culture for a large-scale production of human monoclonal antibody by stable S2 cell transfectants.