Humanization of lepidopteran insect-cell-produced glycoproteins

The insect cell-baculovirus expression vector system, widely used for glycoprotein production, is not ideal for pharmaceutical glycoprotein production due to the characteristics of the N-glycans in the expressed products. Insect cells lack several enzymes required for mammalian-type N-glycan synthesis and contain a specific N-acetylglucosaminidase that stunts the growth of chains and a core alpha-1,3-fucosyltransferase that yields potentially allergenic glycoforms. Current knowledge on N-glycan processing in lepidopteran insect cells is summarized, and strategies to develop better glycoprotein expression systems suitable for pharmaceutical glycoprotein production are discussed.