Recombinant protein expression by targeting pre-selected chromosomal loci

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recombinant protein expression in mammalian cells is mostly achieved by stable integration of transgenes into the chromosomal DNA of established cell lines. The chromosomal surroundings have strong influences on the expression of transgenes. The exploitation of defined loci by targeting expression constructs with different regulatory elements is an approach to design high level expression systems. Further, this allows to evaluate the impact of chromosomal surroundings on distinct vector constructs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We explored antibody expression upon targeting diverse expression constructs into previously tagged loci in CHO-K1 and HEK293 cells that exhibit high reporter gene expression. These loci were selected by random transfer of reporter cassettes and subsequent screening. Both, retroviral infection and plasmid transfection with eGFP or antibody expression cassettes were employed for tagging. The tagged cell clones were screened for expression and single copy integration. Cell clones producing > 20 pg/cell in 24 hours could be identified. Selected integration sites that had been flanked with heterologous recombinase target sites (FRTs) were targeted by Flp recombinase mediated cassette exchange (RMCE). The results give proof of principle for consistent protein expression upon RMCE. Upon targeting antibody expression cassettes 90-100% of all resulting cell clones showed correct integration. Antibody production was found to be highly consistent within the individual cell clones as expected from their isogenic nature. However, the nature and orientation of expression control elements revealed to be critical. The impact of different promoters was examined with the tag-and-targeting approach. For each of the chosen promoters high expression sites were identified. However, each site supported the chosen promoters to a different extent, indicating that the strength of a particular promoter is dominantly defined by its chromosomal context.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>RMCE provides a powerful method to specifically design vectors for optimized gene expression with high accuracy. Upon considering the specific requirements of chromosomal sites this method provides a unique tool to exploit such sites for predictable expression of biotechnologically relevant proteins such as antibodies.</p

A new reporter mouse cytomegalovirus reveals maintained immediate-early gene expression but poor virus replication in cycling liver sinusoidal endothelial cells

Background: The MCMV major immediate early promoter/enhancer (MIEP) is a bidirectional promoter that drives the expression of the three immediate early viral genes, namely ie1, ie2 and ie3. The regulation of their expression is intensively studied, but still incompletely understood. Methods: We constructed a reporter MCMV, (MCMV-MIEPr) expressing YFP and tdTomato under the control of the MIEP as proxies of ie1 and ie2, respectively. Moreover, we generated a liver sinusoidal endothelial cell line (LSEC-uniLT) where cycling is dependent on doxycycline. We used these novel tools to study the kinetics of MIEP-driven gene expression in the context of infection and at the single cell level by flow cytometry and by live imaging of proliferating and G(0)-arrested cells. Results: MCMV replicated to higher titers in G(0)-arrested LSEC, and cycling cells showed less cytopathic effect or YFP and tdTomato expression at 5 days post infection. In the first 24 h post infection, however, there was no difference in MIEP activity in cycling or G(0)-arrested cells, although we could observe different profiles of MIEP gene expression in different cell types, like LSECs, fibroblasts or macrophages. We monitored infected LSEC-uniLT in G(0) by time lapse microscopy over five days and noticed that most cells survived infection for at least 96 h, arguing that quick lysis of infected cells could not account for the spread of the virus. Interestingly, we noticed a strong correlation between the ratio of median YFP and tdTomato expression and length of survival of infected cells. Conclusion: By means of our newly developed genetic tools, we showed that the expression pattern of MCMV IE1 and IE2 genes differs between macrophages, endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Substantial and cell-cycle independent differences in the ie1 and ie2 transcription could also be observed within individual cells of the same population, and marked ie2 gene expression was associated with longer survival of the infected cells

Streamlining Homogeneous Glycoprotein Production for Biophysical and Structural Applications by Targeted Cell Line Development

Studying the biophysical characteristics of glycosylated proteins and solving their three-dimensional structures requires homogeneous recombinant protein of high quality.We introduce here a new approach to produce glycoproteins in homogenous form with the well-established, glycosylation mutant CHO Lec3.2.8.1 cells. Using preparative cell sorting, stable, high-expressing GFP ‘master’ cell lines were generated that can be converted fast and reliably by targeted integration via Flp recombinase-mediated cassette exchange (RMCE) to produce any glycoprotein. Small-scale transient transfection of HEK293 cells was used to identify genetically engineered constructs suitable for constructing stable cell lines. Stable cell lines expressing 10 different proteins were established. The system was validated by expression, purification, deglycosylation and crystallization of the heavily glycosylated luminal domains of lysosome-associated membrane proteins (LAMP)

Intronic FGF14 GAA repeat expansions are a common cause of ataxia syndromes with neuropathy and bilateral vestibulopathy

BACKGROUND: Intronic GAA repeat expansions in the fibroblast growth factor 14 gene (FGF14) have recently been identified as a common cause of ataxia with potential phenotypic overlap with RFC1-related cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy and vestibular areflexia syndrome (CANVAS). Our objective was to report on the frequency of intronic FGF14 GAA repeat expansions in patients with an unexplained CANVAS-like phenotype. METHODS: We recruited 45 patients negative for biallelic RFC1 repeat expansions with a combination of cerebellar ataxia plus peripheral neuropathy and/or bilateral vestibulopathy (BVP), and genotyped the FGF14 repeat locus. Phenotypic features of GAA-FGF14-positive versus GAA-FGF14-negative patients were compared. RESULTS: Frequency of FGF14 GAA repeat expansions was 38% (17/45) in the entire cohort, 38% (5/13) in the subgroup with cerebellar ataxia plus polyneuropathy, 43% (9/21) in the subgroup with cerebellar ataxia plus BVP and 27% (3/11) in patients with all three features. BVP was observed in 75% (12/16) of GAA-FGF14-positive patients. Polyneuropathy was at most mild and of mixed sensorimotor type in six of eight GAA-FGF14-positive patients. Family history of ataxia (59% vs 15%; p=0.007) was significantly more frequent and permanent cerebellar dysarthria (12% vs 54%; p=0.009) significantly less frequent in GAA-FGF14-positive than in GAA-FGF14-negative patients. Age at onset was inversely correlated to the size of the repeat expansion (Pearson's r, -0.67; R2=0.45; p=0.0031). CONCLUSIONS: GAA-FGF14-related disease is a common cause of cerebellar ataxia with polyneuropathy and/or BVP, and should be included in the differential diagnosis of RFC1 CANVAS and disease spectrum

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

CpG-ODN Facilitates Effective Intratracheal Immunization and Recall of Memory against Neoantigen-Expressing Alveolar Cells.

Intrapulmonary immune reactions are impaired by the tolerogenic environment of the lung. This is manifested by the absence of effective endogenous T cell responses upon neoantigen expression. This tolerance is considered to contribute to lung cancer and inefficient immune therapeutic interventions. To investigate the mechanisms contributing to lung tolerance and to overcome these restrictions, we developed a transgenic mouse model with induction of a neoantigen (OVA) exclusively in alveolar type II epithelial cells. This model is characterized by the absence of functional endogenous T cell responses upon OVA neoantigen induction. Standard DNA and protein vaccination protocols resulted in the accumulation of high numbers of antigen-specific CD8 T cells in the lung. However, clearance of antigen-expressing cells was not achieved. To overcome this tolerance, we induced inflammatory conditions by coapplication of the TLR ligands LPS and CpG-ODN during intrapulmonary vaccinations. Both ligands induced high numbers of neoantigen-specific T cells in the lung. However, only coapplication of CpG-ODN was sufficient to establish functional cytotoxic responses resulting in the elimination of neoantigen presenting target cells. Remarkably, CpG-ODN was also crucial for functional memory responses upon re-induction of the neoantigen. The results highlight the need of TLR9 co-stimulation for overcoming tolerization, which might be a key factor for therapeutic interventions

Aktuelle Therapie der chronischen Hepatitis C bei Kindern und Jugendlichen

&lt;jats:title&gt;Zusammenfassung&lt;/jats:title&gt;&lt;jats:p&gt;Zur Behandlung der chronischen Hepatitis C wurden in den letzten Jahren direkt wirkende antivirale Medikamente (DAA) zugelassen und sind bei Erwachsenen etabliert. Sie machten die interferonbasierten Therapien obsolet. Auch für Kinder und Jugendliche stehen seit Kurzem einige DAA zur Verfügung, die überwiegend ab dem Alter von 3 Jahren eingesetzt werden können.&lt;/jats:p&gt;&lt;jats:p&gt;Die chronische Hepatitis C wird bei Kindern überwiegend vertikal übertragen und ist selten. Sie ist zwar zunächst eine wenig aktive und progrediente Erkrankung, kann aber im Erwachsenenalter in eine Leberzirrhose mit der Folge eines hepatozellulären Karzinoms übergehen. Die Diagnose ist mit der Bestimmung des Anti-HCV (IgM/IgG) und der HCV-RNA im Serum mit Genotypisierung leicht zu stellen. Die DAA werden oral appliziert und ausgesprochen gut toleriert. Drei Wirkstoffkombinationen stehen aktuell zur Verfügung, und 2021 wird eine weitere zugelassen. Die Heilungschancen sind mit über 95 % ausgesprochen gut und anhaltend.&lt;/jats:p&gt;&lt;jats:p&gt;Im eigenen Krankengut wurden 25 Jungen und Mädchen überwiegend mit Genotyp 1 im Alter von 4 bis 17 Jahren mit DAA behandelt. Unabhängig von der Höhe der HCV-RNA im Serum waren alle bereits nach 4 Wochen HCV-RNA negativ und erzielten einen dauerhaften Erfolg.&lt;/jats:p&gt;&lt;jats:p&gt;Die wesentliche Aufgabe ist nun, alle Kinder und Jugendlichen mit einer chronischen Hepatitis C zu identifizieren. Bei der äußerst guten Heilungschance kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass das Eradikationsziel in dieser Altersgruppe in absehbarer Zeit erreicht werden kann.&lt;/jats:p&gt