A high density CHO-S transient transfection system: Comparison of ExpiCHO and Expi293

Nina K. Jain, Susan Barkowski-Clark, Richard Altman, Krista Johnson, Fang Sun, Jonathan Zmuda, Chao Yan Liu, Adriana Kita, Ryan Schulz, Alyssa Neill, Robert Ballinger, Rekha Patel, Jian Liu, Alinafe Mpanda, Brian Huta, Henry Chiou, Walter Voegtli, Tadas Panavas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are the principal mammalian host used for stable cell line generation and biotherapeutic protein production. Until recently, production of milligrams to grams of protein in CHO transient systems was challenging. As such, Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK293) cells are the most common mammalian cell type used for transient transfection. The post-translational modifications (PTMs) of a protein are dictated in part by the cell line used for expression, and changes in PTMs have been shown to affect both the activity and biophysical properties of proteins. Therefore, it is potentially advantageous to keep the host cell type consistent throughout drug discovery and development. To this end, we compared the ExpiCHO system, a high density CHO-S transient transfection system, to the Expi293 and FreeStyle MAX CHO transient systems. Fourteen proteins were expressed in both the Expi293 and ExpiCHO systems. For a majority of proteins tested, the protein titers observed with the ExpiCHO system were higher than those seen with both the FreeStyle MAX CHO and Expi293 systems. Antibodies expressed using the ExpiCHO system had glycosylation patterns more similar to antibodies produced in stable CHO cell lines than Expi293-derived antibodies. However, culture duration and temperature were found to affect protein titer, monodispersity, enzyme activity, and PTMs and should be carefully selected when using the ExpiCHO system. The ExpiCHO transient transfection systems allows for facile production of milligrams to grams of protein in CHO cells and de-risks the transition from transient to stable material during drug development.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)38-46
Number of pages9
JournalProtein Expression and Purification
Volume134
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • CHO cells
  • Glycosylation
  • HEK293 cells
  • Post-translational modification
  • Transient transfection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology

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