Improving biopharmaceutical production of Chinese hamster ovary cells using targeted genome engineering Tools

Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are the prominent cell line used in biopharmaceutical production. Over 70% of all therapeutically used recombinant proteins are produced by CHO cells with a market size predicted to exceed €250bn by 2021. Their favourable attributes over other cell lines are properties like resistance to viral infections, growth in chemical defined media, human like glycosylation patterns, good productivity and ease of genetic engineering. Due to the complexity of mammalian expression systems yields achieved are not phenomenal by any means. However, compared to 1986 with product concentrations of 50 mg/L, titres up to 10 g/L have been reported recently. Improvement of bioprocesses and media development contributed their part in facilitating higher titres but genetic engineering to improve host cells came to the foreground. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have hereby been highlighted as attractive targets due to their involvement in processes like viability, secretion, productivity, product quality to mention only a few. MiRNAs are small non-coding RNAs which are about 22 nucleotides in length and were first discovered in the early 90’s. A single miRNA can target 100-200 mRNAs which highlights them as key regulators for translational control. The miRNA-23 cluster was first identified as upregulated during induced hypothermic conditions. Hypothermia is a commonly used process to reduce growth and thrive CHO cells to improved productivities. Therefore, we hypothesised involvement of the miR-23 cluster or individual miRNA members in viability and productivity phenotypes. In this work we investigated the depletion of the miR-23 cluster as well as miR-23, miR-24 and miR-27 in a panel of industrially relevant cell lines expressing various recombinant products. In fact, miR-24 was identified as thriver of productivity and growth by upregulating ribosomal biogenesis, assembly of ribosomal subunits, translation as well as unfolded protein response (UPR). This was demonstrated in several cell lines and was not product specific. Furthermore, the depletion of the whole miR-23 cluster as well as miR-27 has been shown to improve productivity although in a cell line specific context. To overcome challenges of sponge technology we also implemented the recently developed CRISPR/Cas9 system to target miRNAs. When phenotypes after sponge and CRISPR/Cas9 mediated depletion of members of the miR-23 cluster were assessed, it was demonstrated that even enhanced properties were exhibited using CRISPR/Cas9 in case of miR-24 and miR-27 regarding productivity and longevity. Furthermore, we implemented a CRISPR/Cas9 library for genome wide recessive knockout screens to identify proteins involved in high productivity phenotypes or are important for survival of stress conditions i.e. hyperosmolality. Mixed populations expressing the sgRNA-library were sorted for high productivity using low temperature stains and were adapted to high salt conditions. Enrichment or depletion of sgRNAs was subsequently analyzed using Next-Generation Sequencing. SgRNA abundance analysed after low temperature stain showed enrichment of distinct populations. Functional annotation of enriched genes showed no evidence in relation to productivity. Exploiting miRNAs and genome-wide knockout studies to improve the bioprocess phenotype highlights these methods as interesting tools for further investigation regarding applications within biopharmaceutical industry