Cell line profiling to improve monoclonal antibody production

Mammalian cell culture performance is influenced by both intrinsic (genetic) and extrinsic (media and process) factors. In this study, intrinsic capacity of various monoclonal antibody-producing Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines was compared by exposing them to the same culture condition. Microarray-based transcriptomics and LC-MS/MS shotgun proteomics technologies were utilized to obtain expression landscape of different cell lines. Specific transcripts and proteins correlating with productivity, growth rate and cell size have been identified. The proteomics analysis results showed a strong correlation between the intracellular protein expression levels of the recombinant DHFR and productivity. In contrast, neither the light chain nor the heavy chain of the recombinant monoclonal antibody showed correlation to productivity. Other top ranked proteins which demonstrated positive correlation to productivity included the adaptor protein complex subunits AP3D1and AP2B2, DNA repair protein DDB1 and the ER translocation complex component, SRPR. The subunits of molecular chaperone T-complex protein 1 and the regulator of mitochondrial one-carbon metabolism MTHFD2 showed negative correlation to productivity. The transcriptomics analysis has identified the regulators of calcium signaling, Tmem20 and Rcan1, as the top ranked genes displaying positive and negative correlation to productivity, respectively. For the second part of the study, the principal component analysis (PCA) was generated to view the underlying global structure of the expression data. A clear division and expression polarity was observed between the two distinct clusters of cell lines, independent of link to productivity or any other traits examined. The primary component of the PCA generated from either transcriptomics or proteomics data displayed a strong correlation to cell size and doubling time, while none of the main principal components showed correlation to productivity. Our findings suggest that productivity is rather a minor feature in the context of global transcriptional or protein expression space.