A transgenic insect cell line engineered to produce CMP-sialic acid and sialylated glycoproteins

We have previously engineered transgenic insect cell lines to express mammalian glycosyltransferases and showed that these cells can sialylate N-glycoproteins, despite the fact that they have little intracellular sialic acid and no detectable CMP-sialic acid. In the accompanying study, we presented evidence that these cell lines can salvage sialic acids for de novo glycoprotein sialylation from extracellular sialoglycoproteins, such as fetuin, found in fetal bovine serum. This finding led us to create a new transgenic insect cell line designed to synthesize its own sialic acid and CMP-sialic acid. SfSWT-1 cells, which encode five mammalian glycosyltransferases, were transformed with two additional mammalian genes that encode sialic acid synthase and CMP-sialic acid synthetase. The resulting cell line expressed all seven mammalian genes, produced CMP-sialic acid, and sialylated a recombinant glycoprotein when cultured in a serum-free growth medium supplemented with N-acetylmannosamine. Thus the addition of mammalian genes encoding two enzymes involved in CMP-sialic acid biosynthesis yielded a new transgenic insect cell line, SfSWT-3, that can sialylate recombinant glycoproteins in the absence of fetal bovine serum. This new cell line will be widely useful as an improved host for baculovirus-mediated recombinant glycoprotein production.     

Engineering the protein N-glycosylation pathway in insect cells for production of biantennary,complex N-glycans

Insect cells, like other eucaryotic cells, modify many of their proteins by N-glycosylation. However, the endogenous insect cell N-glycan processing machinery generally does not produce complex, terminally sialylated N-glycans such as those found in mammalian systems. This difference in the N-glycan processing pathways of insect cells and higher eucaryotes imposes a significant limitation on their use as hosts for baculovirus-mediated recombinant glycoprotein production. To address this problem, we previously isolated two transgenic insect cell lines that have mammalian beta1,4-galactosyltransferase or beta1,4-galactosyltransferase and alpha2,6-sialyltransferase genes. Unlike the parental insect cell line, both transgenic cell lines expressed the mammalian glycosyltransferases and were able to produce terminally galactosylated or sialylated N-glycans. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the structures of the N-glycans produced by these transgenic insect cell lines in further detail. Direct structural analyses revealed that the most extensively processed N-glycans produced by the transgenic insect cell lines were novel, monoantennary structures with elongation of only the alpha1,3 branch. This led to the hypothesis that the transgenic insect cell lines lacked adequate endogenous N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II activity for biantennary N-glycan production. To test this hypothesis and further extend the N-glycan processing pathway in Sf9 cells, we produced a new transgenic line designed to constitutively express a more complete array of mammalian glycosyltransferases, including N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II. This new transgenic insect cell line, designated SfSWT-1, has higher levels of five glycosyltransferase activities than the parental cells and supports baculovirus replication at normal levels. In addition, direct structural analyses showed that SfSWT-1 cells could produce biantennary, terminally sialylated N-glycans. Thus, this study provides new insight on the glycobiology of insect cells and describes a new transgenic insect cell line that will be widely useful for the production of more authentic recombinant glycoproteins by baculovirus expression vectors.     

Isolation and analysis of a baculovirus vector that supports recombinant glycoprotein sialylation by SfSWT-1 cells cultured in serum-free medium

The inability to sialylate recombinant glycoproteins is a critical limitation of the baculovirus-insect cell expression system. This limitation is due, at least in part, to the absence of detectable sialyltransferase activities and CMP-sialic acids in the insect cell lines routinely used as hosts in this system. SfSWT-1 is a transgenic insect cell line encoding five mammalian glycosyltransferases, including sialyltransferases, which can contribute to sialylation of recombinant glycoproteins expressed by baculovirus vectors. However, sialylation of recombinant glycoproteins requires culturing SfSWT-1 cells in the presence of fetal bovine serum or another exogenous source of sialic acid. To eliminate this requirement and extend the utility of SfSWT-1 cells, we have isolated a new baculovirus vector, AcSWT-7B, designed to express two mammalian enzymes that can convert N-acetylmannosamine to CMP-sialic acid during the early phase of infection. AcSWT-7B was also designed to express a model recombinant glycoprotein during the very late phase of infection. Characterization of this new baculovirus vector showed that it induced high levels of intracellular CMP-sialic acid and sialylation of the recombinant N-glycoprotein upon infection of SfSWT-1 cells cultured in serum-free medium supplemented with N-acetylmannosamine. In addition, co-infection of SfSWT-1 cells with AcSWT-7B plus a conventional baculovirus vector encoding human tissue plasminogen activator resulted in sialylation of this recombinant N-glycoprotein under the same culture conditions. These results demonstrate that AcSWT-7B can be used in two different ways to support recombinant N-glycoprotein sialylation by SfSWT-1 cells in serum-free medium. Thus, AcSWT-7B can be used to extend the utility of this previously described transgenic insect cell line for recombinant sialoglycoprotein production.     

Innovative use of a bacterial enzyme involved in sialic acid degradation to initiate sialic acid biosynthesis in glycoengineered insect cells

The baculovirus/insect cell system is widely used for recombinant protein production, but it is suboptimal for recombinant glycoprotein production because it does not provide sialylation, which is an essential feature of many glycoprotein biologics. This problem has been addressed by metabolic engineering, which has extended endogenous insect cell N-glycosylation pathways and enabled glycoprotein sialylation by baculovirus/insect cell systems. However, further improvement is needed because even the most extensively engineered baculovirus/insect cell systems require media supplementation with N-acetylmannosamine, an expensive sialic acid precursor, for efficient recombinant glycoprotein sialylation. Our solution to this problem focused on E. coli N-acetylglucosamine-6-phosphate 2′-epimerase (GNPE), which normally functions in bacterial sialic acid degradation. Considering that insect cells have the product, but not the substrate for this enzyme, we hypothesized that GNPE might drive the reverse reaction in these cells, thereby initiating sialic acid biosynthesis in the absence of media supplementation. We tested this hypothesis by isolating transgenic insect cells expressing E. coli GNPE together with a suite of mammalian genes needed for N-glycoprotein sialylation. Various assays showed that these cells efficiently produced sialic acid, CMP-sialic acid, and sialylated recombinant N-glycoproteins even in growth media without N-acetylmannosamine. Thus, this study demonstrated that a eukaryotic recombinant protein production platform can be glycoengineered with a bacterial gene, that a bacterial enzyme which normally functions in sialic acid degradation can be used to initiate sialic acid biosynthesis, and that insect cells expressing this enzyme can produce sialylated N-glycoproteins without N-acetylmannosamine supplementation, which will reduce production costs in glycoengineered baculovirus/insect cell systems.     

Sialylation of N-glycans on the recombinant proteins expressed by a baculovirus-insect cell system under beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase inhibition.

We investigated the ability of a baculovirus-insect cell system to produce sialylated glycoproteins. Despite the presence of enzymes for synthesizing complex-type N-glycans, the most frequent structure of insect N-glycan is the paucimannosidic type, Man(3)GlcNAc(2)(+/-Fuc). The reason for the overwhelming assembly of paucimannosidic N-glycans is not yet well understood. We hypothesized that this predominance might be due to insect-specific, Golgi-associated beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase (GlcNAcase)-mediated removal of N-acetylglucosamine residues from the precursor N-glycan, thereby preventing its galactosylation and terminal sialylation. As we expected, the suppression of intrinsic GlcNAcase activity with a specific inhibitor, 2-acetamido-1,2-dideoxynojirimycin, allowed the accumulation of sialylated glycoproteins in the supernatants of insect cell cultures after baculoviral infection. Our observation indicates that GlcNAcase-dependent depletion of N-acetylglucosamine residues from intermediate N-glycans is critical for the assembly of paucimannosidic N-glycans in insect cells and, more importantly, that insect cells (under specific conditions) retain the ability to construct sialylated N-glycans like those in mammalian cells.     

The ST6Gal I sialyltransferase selectively modifies N-glycans on CD45 to negatively regulate galectin-1-induced CD45 clustering,phosphatase modulation,and T cell death

The addition of sialic acid to T cell surface glycoproteins influences essential T cell functions such as selection in the thymus and homing in the peripheral circulation. Sialylation of glycoproteins can be regulated by expression of specific sialyltransferases that transfer sialic acid in a specific linkage to defined saccharide acceptor substrates and by expression of particular glycoproteins bearing saccharide acceptors preferentially recognized by different sialyltransferases. Addition of alpha2,6-linked sialic acid to the Galbeta1,4GlcNAc sequence, the preferred ligand for galectin-1, inhibits recognition of this saccharide ligand by galectin-1. SAalpha2,6Gal sequences, created by the ST6Gal I enzyme, are present on medullary thymocytes resistant to galectin-1-induced death but not on galectin-1-susceptible cortical thymocytes. To determine whether addition of alpha2,6-linked sialic acid to lactosamine sequences on T cell glycoproteins inhibits galectin-1 death, we expressed the ST6Gal I enzyme in a galectin-1-sensitive murine T cell line. ST6Gal I expression reduced galectin-1 binding to the cells and reduced susceptibility of the cells to galectin-1-induced cell death. Because the ST6Gal I preferentially utilizes N-glycans as acceptor substrates, we determined that N-glycans are essential for galectin-1-induced T cell death. Expression of the ST6Gal I specifically resulted in increased sialylation of N-glycans on CD45, a receptor tyrosine phosphatase that is a T cell receptor for galectin-1. ST6Gal I expression abrogated the reduction in CD45 tyrosine phosphatase activity that results from galectin-1 binding. Sialylation of CD45 by the ST6Gal I also prevented galectin-1-induced clustering of CD45 on the T cell surface, an initial step in galectin-1 cell death. Thus, regulation of glycoprotein sialylation may control susceptibility to cell death at specific points during T cell development and peripheral activation.     

A transgenic Bm cell line of piggyBac transposon-derived targeting expression of humanized glycoproteins through N-glycosylation

Glycoproteins have been implicated in a wide variety of important biochemical and biological functions, including protein stability, immune function, enzymatic function, cellular adhesion and others. Unfortunately, there is no therapeutic protein produced in insect system to date, due to the expressed glycoproteins are paucimannosidic N-glycans, rather than the complex, terminally sialylated N-glycans in mammalian cells. In this paper, we cloned the necessary genes in glycosylation of mammalian cells, such as N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II (Gn-TII), galactosyltransferases (Gal-Ts), 2,6-Sial-T (ST6 GalII)and 2,3-Sial-T (ST3GalIII), and transformed them to silkworm genome of BmN cell line through transgenesis to establish a transgenic Bm cell line of piggyBac transposon-derived targeting expression of humanized glycoproteins. The study supplied a new insect cell line which is practically to produce "bisected" complex N-glycans like in mammalian cells.     

Glycoproteins from insect cells: sialylated or not?

Our growing comprehension of the biological roles of glycan moieties has created a clear need for expression systems that can produce mammalian-type glycoproteins. In turn, this has intensified interest in understanding the protein glycosylation pathways of the heterologous hosts that are commonly used for recombinant glycoprotein expression. Among these, insect cells are the most widely used and, particularly in their role as hosts for baculovirus expression vectors, provide a powerful tool for biotechnology. Various studies of the glycosylation patterns of endogenous and recombinant glycoproteins produced by insect cells have revealed a large variety of O- and N-linked glycan structures and have established that the major processed O- and N-glycan species found on these glycoproteins are (Gal beta1,3)GalNAc-O-Ser/Thr and Man3(Fuc)GlcNAc2-N-Asn, respectively. However, the ability or inability of insect cells to synthesize and compartmentalize sialic acids and to produce sialylated glycans remains controversial. This is an important issue because terminal sialic acid residues play diverse biological roles in many glycoconjugates. While most work indicates that insect cell-derived glycoproteins are not sialylated, some well-controlled studies suggest that sialylation can occur. In evaluating this work, it is important to recognize that oligosaccharide structural determination is tedious work, due to the infinite diversity of this class of compounds. Furthermore, there is no universal method of glycan analysis; rather, various strategies and techniques can be used, which provide glycobiologists with relatively more or less precise and reliable results. Therefore, it is important to consider the methodology used to assess glycan structures when evaluating these studies. The purpose of this review is to survey the studies that have contributed to our current view of glycoprotein sialylation in insect cell systems, according to the methods used. Possible reasons for the disagreement on this topic in the literature, which include the diverse origins of biological material and experimental artifacts, will be discussed. In the final analysis, it appears that if insect cells have the genetic potential to perform sialylation of glycoproteins, this is a highly specialized function that probably occurs rarely. Thus, the production of sialylated recombinant glycoproteins in the baculovirus-insect cell system will require metabolic engineering efforts to extend the native protein glycosylation pathways of insect cells.     

Expression of β-1,4-galactosyltransferase and suppression of β-N-acetylglucosaminidase to aid synthesis of complex N-glycans in insect Drosophila S2 cells

Previously, we have shown that simple paucimannosidic N-glycan structures in insect Drosophila S2 cells arise mainly because of β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (GlcNAcase) action. Thus, in an earlier report, we suppressed GlcNAcase activity and clearly demonstrated that more complex N-glycans with two terminal N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) residues were then synthesized. In the present work, we investigated the synergistic effects of β-1,4-galactosyltransferase (GalT) expression and GlcNAcase suppression on N-glycan patterns. We found that the N-glycan pattern of human erythropoietin secreted by engineered S2 cells expressing GalT but not GlcNAcase was complete, even in small portion, except for sialylation; the N-glycan structures had two terminal galactose (Gal) residues. When GalT was expressed but GlcNAcase was not inhibited, N-glycan with GlcNAc and Gal at only one branch end was synthesized. Therefore, it will be possible to express a complete functional human glycoprotein in engineered Drosophila S2 cells by suppressing GlcNAcase and co-expressing additional glycosyltransferases of N-glycosylation pathway.     

Metabolic control of recombinant protein N-glycan processing in NS0 and CHO cells

Chinese hamster ovary and murine myeloma NS0 cells are currently favored host cell types for the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins. In this study, we compared N-glycan processing in GS-NS0 and GS-CHO cells producing the same model recombinant glycoprotein, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1. By manipulation of intracellular nucleotide-sugar content, we examined the feasibility of implementing metabolic control strategies aimed at reducing the occurrence of murine-specific glycan motifs on NS0-derived recombinant proteins, such as Galalpha1,3Galbeta1,4GlcNAc. Although both CHO and NS0-derived oligosaccharides were predominantly of the standard complex type with variable sialylation, 30% of N-glycan antennae associated with NS0-derived TIMP-1 terminated in alpha1,3-linked galactose residues. Furthermore, NS0 cells conferred a greater proportion of terminal N-glycolylneuraminic (sialic) acid residues as compared with the N-acetylneuraminic acid variant. Inclusion of the nucleotide-sugar precursors, glucosamine (10 mM, plus 2 mM uridine) and N-acetylmannosamine (20 mM), in culture media were shown to significantly increase the intracellular pools of UDP-N-acetylhexosamine and CMP-sialic acid, respectively, in both NS0 and CHO cells. The elevated UDP-N-acetylhexosamine content induced by the glucosamine/uridine treatment was associated with an increase in the antennarity of N-glycans associated with TIMP-1 produced in CHO cells but not N-glycans associated with TIMP-1 from NS0 cells. In addition, elevated UDP-N-acetylhexosamine content was associated with a slight decrease in sialylation in both cell lines. The elevated CMP-sialic acid content induced by N-acetylmannosamine had no effect on the overall level of sialylation of TIMP-1 produced by both CHO and NS0 cells, although the ratio of N-glycolylneuraminic acid:N-acetylneuraminic acid associated with NS0-derived TIMP-1 changed from 1:1 to 1:2. These data suggest that manipulation of nucleotide-sugar metabolism can promote changes in N-glycan processing that are either conserved between NS0 and CHO cells or specific to either NS0 cells or CHO cells.     

Comparing N-glycan processing in mammalian cell lines to native and engineered lepidopteran insect cell lines

In the past decades, a large number of studies in mammalian cells have revealed that processing of glycoproteins is compartmentalized into several subcellular organelles that process N-glycans to generate complex-type oligosaccharides with terminal N -acetlyneuraminic acid. Recent studies also suggested that processing of N-glycans in insect cells appear to follow a similar initial pathway but diverge at subsequent processing steps. N-glycans from insect cell lines are not usually processed to terminally sialylated complex-type structures but are instead modified to paucimannosidic or oligomannose structures. These differences in processing between insect cells and mammalian cells are due to insufficient expression of multiple processing enzymes including glycosyltransferases responsible for generating complex-type structures and metabolic enzymes involved in generating appropriate sugar nucleotides. Recent genomics studies suggest that insects themselves may include many of these complex transferases and metabolic enzymes at certain developmental stages but expression is lost or limited in most lines derived for cell culture. In addition, insect cells include an N -acetylglucosaminidase that removes a terminal N -acetylglucosamine from the N-glycan. The innermost N -acetylglucosamine residue attached to asparagine residue is also modified with alpha(1,3)-linked fucose, a potential allergenic epitope, in some insect cells. In spite of these limitations in N-glycosylation, insect cells have been widely used to express various recombinant proteins with the baculovirus expression vector system, taking advantage of their safety, ease of use, and high productivity. Recently, genetic engineering techniques have been applied successfully to insect cells in order to enable them to produce glycoproteins which include complex-type N-glycans. Modifications to insect N-glycan processing include the expression of missing glycosyltransferases and inclusion of the metabolic enzymes responsible for generating the essential donor sugar nucleotide, CMP- N -acetylneuraminic acid, required for sialylation. Inhibition of N -acetylglucosaminidase has also been applied to alter N-glycan processing in insect cells. This review summarizes current knowledge on N-glycan processing in lepidopteran insect cell lines, and recent progress in glycoengineering lepidopteran insect cells to produce glycoproteins containing complex N-glycans.     

Evaluation of desialylation during 2-amino benzamide labeling of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides

Labeling of released asparagine-linked (N-linked) oligosaccharides from glycoproteins is commonly performed to aid in the separation and detection of the oligosaccharide. Of the many available oligosaccharide labels, 2-amino benzamide (2-AB) is a popular choice for providing a fluorescent product. The derivatization conditions can potentially lead to oligosaccharide desialylation. This work evaluated the extent of sialic acid loss during 2-AB labeling of N-linked oligosaccharides released from bovine fetuin, polyclonal human serum immunoglobulin G (IgG), and human α₁-acid glycoprotein (AGP) as well as of sialylated oligosaccharide reference standards and found that for more highly sialylated oligosaccharides the loss is greater than the <2% value commonly cited. Manufacturers of glycoprotein biotherapeutics need to produce products with a consistent state of sialylation and, therefore, require an accurate assessment of glycoprotein sialylation.     

Plant cultured cells expressing human beta1,4-galactosyltransferase secrete glycoproteins with galactose-extended N-linked glycans

Previously, we generated transgenic tobacco BY2 suspension-cultured cells (GT6 cells) that produced human beta1,4-galactosyltransferase. In this study, we analyze the N-glycan structures of glycoproteins secreted from GT6 cells to the spent medium. The N-glycans were liberated by hydrazinolysis, and the resulting oligosaccharides were labeled with 2-aminopyridine (PA). The pyridylaminated glycans were purified by reversed-phase and size-fractionation HPLC. The structures of the PA sugar chains were identified by the combined use of 2D PA sugar chain mapping, MS/MS analysis, and exoglycosidase digestion. The distribution of proposed N-glycan structures of GT6-secreted glycoproteins (GalGNM5 [26.8%], GalGNM4 [18.4%], GalGNM3 [19.6%], and GalGNM3X [35.2%]) is different from that found in intracellular glycoproteins (M7A [9.3%], M7B [15.9%], M6B [19.5%], M5 [1.4%], M3X [6.6%], GalGNM5 [35.5%], and GalGNM3 [11.8%]). In vitro, sialic acid was transferred to sugar chains of extracellular glycoproteins from the GT6 spent medium. The results suggest that sugar chains of extracellular glycoproteins from the GT6 spent medium are candidates for substrates of sialic acid transfer.     

Anti-inflammatory IgG production requires functional P1 promoter in β-galactoside α2,6-sialyltransferase 1 (ST6Gal-1) gene

The anti-inflammatory properties associated with intravenous immunoglobulin therapy require the sialic acid modification of the N-glycan of the Fc domain of IgG. Sialylation of the Fc fragment is mediated by β-galactoside α2,6-sialyltransferase 1 (ST6Gal-1), acting on the Gal(β4)GlcNAc terminal structure of the biantennary N-glycans on the Fc domain. However, little is known regarding the in vivo regulation of Fc sialylation and its role in the progression of inflammatory processes. Here, we report that decreased Fc sialylation of circulatory IgG accompanies the acute phase response elicited by turpentine exposure or upon acute exposure to either nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae or ovalbumin. However, Fc sialylation was increased 3-fold from the base line upon transition to chronic inflammation by repeated exposure to challenge. The P1 promoter of the ST6Gal-1 gene is critical for Fc sialylation, but P1 does not drive ST6Gal-1 expression in B cells. The Siat1ΔP1 mouse, with a dysfunctional P1 promoter, was unable to produce sialylated Fc in the systemic circulation, despite the presence of Gal(β4)GlcNAc termini on the Fc glycans. The major contribution of P1 action is to synthesize ST6Gal-1 enzymes that are deposited into the systemic circulation. The data strongly indicate that this pool of extracellular ST6Gal-1 in the blood impacts the sialylation of IgG Fc and that defective Fc sialylation is likely a major contributing mechanism for the proinflammatory tendencies previously noted in Siat1ΔP1 animals.     

N-glycan structures and N-glycosylation sites of mouse soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 revealed by MALDI-TOF and FTICR mass spectrometry

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) is a heavily N-glycosylated transmembrane protein comprising five extracellular Ig-like domains. The soluble isoform of ICAM-1 (sICAM-1), consisting of its extracellular part, is elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with severe brain trauma. In mouse astrocytes, recombinant mouse sICAM-1 induces the production of the CXC chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2). MIP-2 induction is glycosylation dependent, as it is strongly enhanced when sICAM-1 carries sialylated, complex-type N-glycans as synthesized by wild-type Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The present study was aimed at elucidating the N-glycosylation of mouse sICAM-1 expressed in wild-type CHO cells with regard to sialylation, N-glycan profile, and N-glycosylation sites. Ion-exchange chromatography and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) of the released N-glycans showed that sICAM-1 mostly carried di- and trisialylated complex-type N-glycans with or without one fucose. In some sialylated N-glycans, one N-acetylneuraminic acid was replaced by N-glycolylneuraminic acid, and approximately 4% carried a higher number of sialic acid residues than of antennae. The N-glycosylation sites of mouse sICAM-1 were analyzed by MALDI-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR)-MS and nanoLC-ESI-FTICR-MS of tryptic digests of mouse sICAM-1 expressed in the Lec1 mutant of CHO cells. All nine consensus sequences for N-glycosylation were found to be glycosylated. These results show that the N-glycans that enhance the MIP-2-inducing activity of mouse sICAM-1 are mostly di- and trisialylated complex-type N-glycans including a small fraction carrying more sialic acid residues than antennae and that the nine N-glycosylation sites of mouse sICAM-1 are all glycosylated.     

Improvement of glycosylation in insect cells with mammalian glycosyltransferases

The N-glycans of recombinant glycoproteins expressed in insect cells mainly contain high mannose or tri-mannose structures, which are truncated forms of the sialylated N-glycans found in mammalian cells. Because asialylated glycoproteins have a shorter half-life in blood circulation, we investigated if sialylated therapeutic glycoprotein can be produced from insect cells by enhancing the N-glycosylation machinery of the cells. We co-expressed in two insect cell lines, Sf9 and Ea4, the human alpha1-antitrypsin (halpha1AT) protein with a series of key glycosyltransferases, including GlcNAc transferase II (GnT2), beta1,4-galactosyltransferase (beta14GT), and alpha2,6-sialyltransferase (alpha26ST) by a single recombinant baculovirus. We demonstrated that the enhancement of N-glycosylation is cell type-dependent and is more efficient in Ea4 than Sf9 cells. Glycan analysis indicated that sialylated halpha1AT proteins were produced in Ea4 insect cells expressing the above-mentioned exogenous glycosyltransferases. Therefore, our expression strategy may simplify the production of humanized therapeutic glycoproteins by improving the N-glycosylation pathway in specific insect cells, with an ensemble of exogenous glycosyltransferases in a single recombinant baculovirus.     

Enhanced sialylation of EPO by overexpression of UDP-GlcNAc 2-epimerase/ManAc kinase containing a sialuria mutation in CHO cells

Sialylation (e.g. expression of sialic acid) plays a crucial role for function and stability of most glycoproteins. The key enzyme for the biosynthesis of sialic acid is the UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 2-epimerase/N-acetylmannosamine-kinase (GNE). Mutations in the binding site of the feedback inhibitor CMP-sialic acid of the GNE leads to sialuria, a disease in which patients produce sialic acid in gram scale. Here, we report on the use in biotechnology of sialuria-mutated GNE. Expression of the sialuria-mutated GNE in CHO-cells leads to increased sialylation of recombinant expressed erythropoietin (EPO). Our data show that sialuria-mutated-GNE over-expressing cells are the perfect platform to express highly sialylated therapeutic proteins, such as EPO.     

Enhanced sialylation of recombinant human erythropoietin in Chinese hamster ovary cells by combinatorial engineering of selected genes

Therapeutic glycoproteins with exposed galactose (Gal) residues are cleared rapidly from the bloodstream by asialoglycoprotein receptors in hepatocytes. Various approaches have been used to increase the content of sialic acid, which occupies terminal sites of N- or O-linked glycans and thereby increases the half-life of therapeutic glycoproteins. We enhanced sialylation of human erythropoietin (EPO) by genetic engineering of the sialylation pathway in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The enzyme GNE (uridine diphosphate-N-acetyl glucosamine 2-epimerase)/MNK (N-acetyl mannosamine kinase), which plays a key role in the initial two steps of sialic acid biosynthesis, is regulated by cytidine monophosphate (CMP)-sialic acid through a feedback mechanism. Since sialuria patient cells fail in regulating sialic acid biosynthesis by feedback mechanism, various sialuria-like mutated rat GNEs were established and subjected to in vitro activity assay. GNE/MNK-R263L-R266Q mutant showed 93.6% relative activity compared with wild type and did not display feedback inhibition. Genes for sialuria-mutated rat GNE/MNK, Chinese hamster CMP-sialic acid transporter and human α2,3-sialyltransferase (α2,3-ST) were transfected simultaneously into recombinant human (rh) EPO-producing CHO cells. CMP-sialic acid concentration of engineered cells was significantly (>10-fold) increased by sialuria-mutated GNE/MNK (R263L-R266Q) expression. The sialic acid content of rhEPO produced from engineered cells was 43% higher than that of control cells. Ratio of tetra-sialylated glycan of rhEPO produced from engineered cells was increased ～32%, but ratios of asialo- and mono-sialylated glycans were decreased ～50%, compared with control. These findings indicate that sialuria-mutated rat GNE/MNK effectively increases the intracellular CMP-sialic acid level. The newly constructed host CHO cell lines produced more highly sialylated therapeutic glycoproteins through overexpression of sialuria-mutated GNE/MNK, CMP-SAT and α2,3-ST.     

Analysis of the N-glycans of recombinant human Factor IX purified from transgenic pig milk

Glycosylation of recombinant proteins is of particular importance because it can play significant roles in the clinical properties of the glycoprotein. In this work, the N-glycan structures of recombinant human Factor IX (tg-FIX) produced in the transgenic pig mammary gland were determined. The majority of the N-glycans of transgenic pig-derived Factor IX (tg-FIX) are complex, bi-antennary with one or two terminal N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) moieties. We also found that the N-glycan structures of tg-FIX produced in the porcine mammary epithelial cells differed with respect to N-glycans from glycoproteins produced in other porcine tissues. tg-FIX contains no detectable Neu5Gc, the sialic acid commonly found in porcine glycoproteins produced in other tissues. Additionally, we were unable to detect glycans in tg-FIX that have a terminal Galalpha(1,3)Gal disaccharide sequence, which is strongly antigenic in humans. The N-glycan structures of tg-FIX are also compared to the published N-glycan structures of recombinant human glycoproteins produced in other transgenic animal species. While tg-FIX contains only complex structures, antithrombin III (goat), C1 inhibitor (rabbit), and lactoferrin (cow) have both high mannose and complex structures. Collectively, these data represent a beginning point for the future investigation of species-specific and tissue/cell-specific differences in N-glycan structures among animals used for transgenic animal bioreactors.     

Glycoengineering of therapeutic glycoproteins: in vitro galactosylation and sialylation of glycoproteins with terminal N-acetylglucosamine and galactose residues

Therapeutic glycoproteins produced in different host cells by recombinant DNA technology often contain terminal GlcNAc and Gal residues. Such glycoproteins clear rapidly from the serum as a consequence of binding to the mannose receptor and/or the asialoglycoprotein receptor in the liver. To increase the serum half-life of these glycoproteins, we carried out in vitro glycosylation experiments using TNFR-IgG, an immunoadhesin molecule, as a model therapeutic glycoprotein. TNFR-IgG is a disulfide-linked dimer of a polypeptide composed of the extracellular portion of the human type 1 (p55) tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) fused to the hinge and Fc regions of the human IgG(1) heavy chain. This bivalent antibody-like molecule contains four N-glycosylation sites per polypeptide, three in the receptor portion and one in the Fc. The heterogeneous N-linked oligosaccharides of TNFR-IgG contain sialic acid (Sia), Gal, and GlcNAc as terminal sugar residues. To increase the level of terminal sialylation, we regalactosylated and/or resialylated TNFR-IgG using beta-1,4-galactosyltransferase (beta1,4GT) and/or alpha-2,3-sialyltransferase (alpha2,3ST). Treatment of TNFR-IgG with beta1,4GT and UDP-Gal, in the presence of MnCl(2), followed by MALDI-TOF-MS analysis of PNGase F-released N-glycans showed that the number of oligosaccharides with terminal GlcNAc residues was significantly decreased with a concomitant increase in the number of terminal Gal residues. Similar treatment of TNFR-IgG with alpha2,3ST and CMP-sialic acid (CMP-Sia), in the presence of MnCl(2), produced a molecule with an approximately 11% increase in the level of terminal sialylation but still contained oligosaccharides with terminal GlcNAc residues. When TNFR-IgG was treated with a combination of beta1,4GT and alpha2,3ST (either in a single step or in a stepwise fashion), the level of terminal sialylation was increased by approximately 20-23%. These results suggest that in vitro galactosylation and sialylation of therapeutic glycoproteins with terminal GlcNAc and Gal residues can be achieved in a single step, and the results are similar to those for the stepwise reaction. This type of in vitro glycosylation is applicable to other glycoproteins containing terminal GlcNAc and Gal residues and could prove to be useful in increasing the serum half-life of therapeutic glycoproteins.