Model-based investigation of intracellular processes determining antibody Fc-glycosylation under mild hypothermia (Biotechnology and Bioengineering)

Despite the positive effects of mild hypothermic conditions on monoclonal antibody (mAb) productivity (qmAb) during mammalian cell culture, the impact of reduced culture temperature on mAb Fc-glycosylation and the mechanism behind changes in the glycan composition is not fully established. The lack of knowledge about the regulation of dynamic intracellular processes under mild hypothermia restricts bioprocess optimisation. To address this issue, a mathematical model that quantitatively describes CHO cell behaviour and metabolism, mAb synthesis and its N-linked glycosylation profiles before and after the induction of mild hypothermia is constructed using two sets of parameters. Results from this study show that the model is capable of representing experimental results well in all of the aspects mentioned above, including the N-linked glycosylation profile of mAb produced under mild hypothermia. Most importantly, comparison between model simulation results for different culture temperatures suggest the reduced rates of nucleotide sugar donor production and galactosyltransferase (GalT) expression to be critical contributing factors that determine the variation in Fc-glycan profiles between physiological and mild hypothermic conditions in stable CHO transfectants. This is then confirmed using experimental measurements of GalT expression levels, thereby closing the loop between the experimental and the computational system. The identification of bottlenecks within CHO cell metabolism under mild hypothermic conditions will aid bioprocess optimisation, e.g., by tailoring feeding stradegies to improve NSD production, or manipulating the expression of specific glycosyltransferases through cell line engineering. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved