PTSelect™: A post-transcriptional technology that enables rapid
establishment of stable CHO cell lines and surveillance of clonal
variation
Abstract
Currently, stable Chinese hamster ovary cell lines producing
therapeutic, recombinant proteins are established either by antibiotic
and/or metabolic selection. Here we report a novel technology, PTSelect™
that utilizes an siRNA cloned upstream of the gene of interest (GOI)
that is processed to produce functional PTSelect™-siRNAs, which enable
cell selection. Cells with stably integrated GOI are selected and
separated from cells without GOI by transfecting CD4/siRNA mRNA
regulated by PTSelect™-siRNAs and exploiting the variable expression of
CD4 on the cell surface. This study describes the PTSelect™ principle
and compares the productivity, doubling time and stability of clones
developed by PTSelect™ with conventionally developed clones. PTSelect™
rapidly established a pool population with comparable stability and
productivity to pools generated by traditional methods and can further
be used to easily monitor productivity changes due to clonal drift,
identifying individual cells with reduced productivity.