Multiplexed engineering glycosyltransferase genes in CHO cells via targeted integration for producing antibodies with diverse complex-type N-glycans

Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 21;11(1):12969. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92320-x.

Abstract

Therapeutic antibodies are decorated with complex-type N-glycans that significantly affect their biodistribution and bioactivity. The N-glycan structures on antibodies are incompletely processed in wild-type CHO cells due to their limited glycosylation capacity. To improve N-glycan processing, glycosyltransferase genes have been traditionally overexpressed in CHO cells to engineer the cellular N-glycosylation pathway by using random integration, which is often associated with large clonal variations in gene expression levels. In order to minimize the clonal variations, we used recombinase-mediated-cassette-exchange (RMCE) technology to overexpress a panel of 42 human glycosyltransferase genes to screen their impact on antibody N-linked glycosylation. The bottlenecks in the N-glycosylation pathway were identified and then released by overexpressing single or multiple critical genes. Overexpressing B4GalT1 gene alone in the CHO cells produced antibodies with more than 80% galactosylated bi-antennary N-glycans. Combinatorial overexpression of B4GalT1 and ST6Gal1 produced antibodies containing more than 70% sialylated bi-antennary N-glycans. In addition, antibodies with various tri-antennary N-glycans were obtained for the first time by overexpressing MGAT5 alone or in combination with B4GalT1 and ST6Gal1. The various N-glycan structures and the method for producing them in this work provide opportunities to study the glycan structure-and-function and develop novel recombinant antibodies for addressing different therapeutic applications.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibody Formation / drug effects
  • CHO Cells
  • Cell Culture Techniques
  • Cricetulus
  • Gene Expression
  • Glycosylation
  • Glycosyltransferases / genetics*
  • Glycosyltransferases / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Polysaccharides / metabolism*
  • Protein Engineering*
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics*
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

  • Polysaccharides
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Glycosyltransferases