Specialists from the Federal Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a unique line of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells capable of maintaining viability in bioreactors for up to three weeks without reducing productivity. This achievement could significantly increase the production volumes of pharmaceutical proteins used in the creation of medicines.
CHO cells are widely used in biotechnology due to their ability to produce complex therapeutic proteins, including antibodies and hormones. However, their traditional lines have a limited lifespan in bioreactors – about two weeks. Russian scientists have modified the genome of cells, disabling the main mechanisms of apoptosis (programmed cell death) and adding additional copies of genes responsible for resistance.
The developed CHO 4BGD cell line and producers of pharmaceutical proteins based on it are able to live up to three weeks in microbioreactors without loss of viability, compared to two weeks during which ordinary CHO cell lines remain viable.
The new cell line has already been deposited in the All-Russian Collection of Industrial Microorganisms (number H-233) and is available for scientific and industrial applications.
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