Transient gene expression allows for the rapid production of recombinant proteins. It is an ideal technology to screen pipeline candidates where mg to gram quantities are often required in a rapid time frame in order to expedite optimisation and ultimately select leads for progression to the clinic.
Traditionally, industry has utilised HEK cells for transient expression due to the relatively high yields and ease of handling. However, CHO cells remain the host cell of choice for later stage clinical and commercial bioproduction using stable cell lines. This pathway creates a mismatch between lead optimisation and final lead candidate, where expression in different host cells may lead to differences in product quality, e.g. glycosylation or other post translational modifications. Matching CHO systems for transient and stable protein expression reduces the risk of delays and process development required to address differences in protein quality.
High yielding CHO transient systems have been a considerable industry challenge, however at ACYTE Biotech we have developed a high-yielding CHO cell based transient gene expression system, avoiding any complications arising from changing host cells from early to late stage development. This system, known as Epi-CHO is able to routinely produce titres of recombinant monoclonal antibodies exceeding 100 mg/L.
Epi-CHO is able to achieve these high yields through the use of proprietary genetic elements which allow transfected plasmid DNA to be replicated and retained during cell division.
Epi-CHO consists of three main components:
Monoclonal antibody transient expression levels illustrating the effect of Epi-CHO compared to a non-episomal replicating CHO cell line, and the improvement attainable though cell culture optimisation.
