Patent Application
20110281286
The present invention relates to an expression vector to be used in a method where an expression vector into which gene of aimed protein has been inserted is transferred into host cells by means of gene recombination technique, and cells which express the gene of aimed protein in a high level are efficiently established from the transformed cells. It also relates to the transformed highly productive cells. The expression vector of the present invention is useful for the production of useful protein such as a drug in animal cells or, particularly, mammalian cells by a genetic engineering means.
Development of an expression system which produces a recombinant protein is important in providing a source of supply for protein which is used in research or therapy. As to the expression system, that based on prokaryotic cells such as Escherichia coli and that based on eukaryotic cells including yeast (genus Saccharomyces, genus Pichia, genus Kluyveromyces, etc.) and animal cells such as mammalian cells have been used. Among them, an expression system based on animal cells or, particularly, mammalian cells is preferred for the manufacture of protein for the therapy. That is because, since the posttranslational modification of protein which occurs in mammals such as human sometimes deeply contributes in bioactivity of the protein, and since posttranslational modification similar to that in the object to which protein is administered is possible in an expression system based on mammalian cells, efficiency of the protein for therapy is able to be enhanced by using the expression system based on mammalian cells.
As to a method for establishing the cells which produce a recombinant protein, it is general that a gene construct which expresses the gene of the aimed protein is transferred into host cells and, from the resulting transformed cells, the cells where the gene construct is stably transferred into the genome of the host cells are selected. At that time, a drug-resistant gene which acts as a drug selective marker has been previously inserted into the above gene construct so that said gene is expressed under a promoter which is same as or different from that of the gene of the aimed protein and then the cells survived by means of the drug selection are selected as the cells into which the gene of the aimed protein is stably transferred. Expression level of the aimed protein greatly varies depending upon the region of the host cell genome into which the gene coding for the aimed protein is transferred, but it is usually impossible to control the transfer region. Accordingly, even when gene transfer is carried out, most of the cells do not express the gene of the aimed protein or the expressed level is low. Therefore, in obtaining the transformed cells where the aimed protein gene is expressed in a high level, the operation of selection of one or two cell strain(s) from one thousand to several thousands of cell samples has been conducted repeatedly for several months to one year whereby quite a lot of labor and time have been needed for the selection of transformed cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level.
Under such circumstances, a method of attenuating expression or function of a drug selective marker has been developed for an efficient selection of transformed cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level. When expression or function of a drug selective marker is attenuated, the transformed cells where the drug selective marker gene is transferred into a low expression region in the host cell genome are unable to fully express the drug selective marker (drug-resistant gene) whereby they are dead and only the transformed cells where the drug selective marker gene is transferred into a high expression region survive by the drug selection. In the survived transformed cells, there is a high possibility that the aimed protein gene exists adjacent to the drug selective marker gene and, therefore, the aimed protein gene is also transferred into the high expression site in the host cell genome and there is a high possibility that the aimed protein gene is expressed in a high level. It is expected that, when that is utilized, transformed cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level are able to be efficiently selected.
Examples of a method for attenuation of expression or function of the drug selective marker include a method where herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) promoter having a weak transcription activity is used for expression of the drug selective marker (Non-Patent Document 1) and a method where expression of the drug selective marker is suppressed using a variant type promoter where the transcription activity level is attenuated as compared with the wild type (Patent Documents 1, 2). However, when the present inventors carried out the follow-up studies of those methods, any of them rarely showed an effect in view of attenuating the expression of the drug selective marker. Therefore, it was thought to be difficult to efficiently select transformed cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level using such a method.
Another method for the attenuation of expression or function of a drug selective marker is that mutation is transferred into the coding sequence of the drug selective marker such as neomycin phosphotransferase whereby the function of the drug selective marker itself is attenuated (Patent Documents 3, 4). The present inventors have carried out a follow-up study for this method and found that, when this method was applied, function of the drug selective marker was able to be attenuated to some extent and, as a result of the drug selection, small amount of cell strain exhibiting enhanced expression amount was able to be procured. However, the efficiency in terms of selection of transformed cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level is not good and no significant effect was achieved by this method.
In establishing the highly productive cells, it is necessary to eliminate the influence from genome environment around the aimed gene-transferred site on the host cell genome for stably maintaining the expression of the aimed gene, in addition to the improvement in the cell selection art. Expression of the recombinant protein greatly varies depending upon the site of the host cell genome into which the gene coding for the recombinant protein is transferred. Usually however, control of the transfer site is impossible. Accordingly, even in the case of the cells exhibiting a sufficient expression upon screening, the expression sometimes lowers gradually as the cells are cultured continuously. In order to overcome such a position effect, a chromosome element (cis-acting DNA element) which mitigates the influence of the adjacent chromosome or regulatory element to the transgene has been utilized for the production of recombinant protein. One of the nucleic acid sequences having such a function is a sequence called an insulator and a DNAase I hypersensitive site of β-globin LCR of domestic fowls (cHS4; 1.2 kb length), etc. has been well analyzed for its function and utilized for the expression of recombinant protein (Non-Patent Document 2) but it has been reported that the increase in the protein expression in the CHO-K1 cells is not so significant (Non-Patent Document 3).
An object of the present invention is to provide an expression vector which is effective in an efficient establishment of transformed cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level and also to provide a highly productive cell.
In order to solve the above problems, the present inventors have invented a cassette for expressing the drug selective marker into which mRNA destabilizing sequence is transferred and an element for gene expression stabilization. They have further constructed expression vectors equipped with the various kinds of expressing cassette for drug selective marker having mRNA destabilizing sequence and with the element for stabilizing the gene expression and analyzed the gene expression of host cells transformed by the above expression vectors in detail. As a result thereof, they have found that the rate of the cells which highly produce the aimed protein significantly increased whereupon the present invention has been achieved.
Thus, in accordance with the present invention, the followings are provided.
(1) An expression vector which is characterized in having a cassette for expressing the drug selective marker gene containing mRNA destabilizing sequence, at least one element for stabilizing the gene expression and a cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein.
(2) The expression vector according to (1), wherein the mRNA destabilizing sequence is derived from AT-rich sequence existing in the 3′-untranslated region of cytokine, interleukin or proto-oncogene.
(3) The expression vector according to (1), wherein the mRNA destabilizing sequence has a motif sequence of TTATTTA (A/T)(A/T).
(4) The expression vector according to (3), wherein the motif sequence is repeated for two or more times.
(5) The expression vector according to (4), wherein one or more base(s) of spacer sequence is contained between the repetition of the motif sequence.
(6) The expression vector according to any one of (2) to (5), wherein substitution, insertion or deletion of one to several base(s) is contained in the mRNA destabilizing sequence.
(7) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (6), wherein the element for stabilizing the gene expression is derived from Chinese hamster genome.
(8) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (7), wherein the element for stabilizing the gene expression consists of any one of the following (a) to (h) or any combination thereof:
(a) a DNA consisting of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(b) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing the sequence of the region from the 41820th base to the 41839th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(c) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing the sequence of the region from the 41821st base to the 41840th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(d) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing the sequence of the region from the 45182nd base to the 45200th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(e) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing the sequence of the region from the 91094th base to the 91113th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(f) a DNA consisting of the partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 wherein, when it is aligned to be adjacent to the cassette for expressing the exogenous gene in the host cells, expression of the aimed recombinant protein from the exogenous gene contained in the cassette for expressing the exogenous gene is able to be increased or stabilized;
(g) a DNA which hybridizes under a stringent condition to a DNA consisting of the base sequence complementary to any of the DNAs in the above (a) to (f) and has a gene expression stabilizing function; and
(h) a DNA which consists of the base sequence complementary to any of the DNAs in the above (a) to (g).
(9) The expression vector according to (8), wherein the element for stabilizing the gene expression consists of anyone of the following (i) to (k) or any combination thereof:
(i) a DNA containing the sequence of the region from the 41601st base to the 46746th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(j) a DNA which hybridizes under a stringent condition to a DNA consisting of the base sequence complementary to the DNA in (i) and has a gene expression stabilizing function; and
(k) a DNA which consists of the base sequence complementary to the DNAs in the above (i) or (j).
(10) The expression vector according to (9), which is characterized in that the element for stabilizing the gene expression consists of any one of the following (l) to (n) or any combination thereof:
(l) a DNA containing the sequence of the region from the 41601st base to the 42700th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(m) a DNA which hybridizes under a stringent condition to a DNA consisting of the base sequence complementary to the DNA in (l) and has a gene expression stabilizing function; and
(n) a DNA which consists of the base sequence complementary to the DNAs in (l) or (m).
(11) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (10), wherein the element for stabilizing the gene expression is aligned on the upstream region of the cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein.
(12) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (10), wherein the element for stabilizing the gene expression is aligned on both of the upstream and downstream regions of the cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein.
(13) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (10), wherein the element for stabilizing the gene expression is aligned on both of the upstream and downstream regions of the cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein and of the cassette for expressing the drug selective marker gene.
(14) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (13), wherein the drug selective marker gene is a gene which is resistant to the antibiotic substance of a protein synthesis inhibition type.
(15) The expression vector according to (14), wherein the drug selective marker gene is selected from the group consisting of puromycin-N-acetyltransferase, hygromycin-B-phosphotransferase and neomycin phosphotransferase.
(16) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (15), wherein the cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein is equipped with a multiple cloning site for insertion of the aimed protein gene.
(17) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (16), wherein the aimed protein is a heavy chain and/or light chain polypeptide(s) of an antibody.
(18) The expression vector according to any one of (1) to (17), wherein the cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein is an antibody gene expressing cassette containing a constant region gene of the light chain of the antibody and/or an antibody gene expressing cassette containing a constant region gene of the heavy chain of the antibody.
(19) A transformed cell, which is characterized in being obtained by transformation of the host cell by the expression vector according to any one of (1) to (18).
(20) The transformed cell according to (19), wherein the host cell is an animal cell.
(21) The transformed cell according to (20), wherein the animal cell is a mammalian cell.
(22) The transformed cell according to (21), wherein the mammalian cell is a Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell.
(23) The transformed cell according to (22), wherein the Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell is adapted to serum-free media.
(24) A method for selecting a cell group which expresses the aimed protein gene in a high level, characterized in that, the method comprises a step of subjecting the transformed cell according to any one of (19) to (23) to a drug selection.
(25) A cell group, characterized in that, it consists of the transformed cell according to any one of (19) to (23) and expresses the aimed protein gene in a high level.
(26) A method for producing a protein, characterized in that, the transformed cell according to any one of (19) to (23) is used.
(27) The method according to (26), wherein the protein is an antibody.
(28) The method according to (26), wherein the protein is a vaccine.
In the cassette for expressing the drug selective marker gene according to the present invention, an mRNA destabilizing sequence is inserted into it. Thus, expression of the drug selective marker thereby is attenuated as compared with the conventional cassette for expressing the drug selective marker gene having no mRNA destabilizing sequence. Therefore, unless the cassette is integrated into a highly expression region in the host cell genome, the transformed cell has a difficulty in surviving in the presence of a drug. Due to this reason, only such a transformed cell where the drug selective marker gene and the aimed protein gene are integrated in a highly expression region in the host cell genome is able to survive by means of drug selection. As a result, a highly expressing cell where the aimed protein gene is expressed in a high level is able to be efficiently selected.
In addition, the element for stabilizing the gene expression according to the present invention reduces the influence of the adjacent chromosome or regulatory element to recombinant protein gene in the cell genome and stabilizes the gene expression of the recombinant protein gene whereby high expression is able to be maintained for a long period. Therefore, when the attenuated cassette for expressing the drug selective marker and the gene expression stabilizing element of the present invention are used together, cells which very highly express the aimed protein gene in the cells obtained by drug selection are concentrated and, further, the expression in such highly expressing cells is able to be stably maintained due to the synergism thereof. In accordance with the present invention, a highly productive cell strain showing the very high level of protein productivity is able to be established quickly, easily and efficiently.
The present invention will be explained in detail hereinafter.
For the function analysis of protein and also for the production of useful protein, a method where gene of the aimed protein is transferred into cells or, particularly, animal cells using a gene recombination technique whereby it is expressed as a recombinant protein has been widely used. To be more specific, a method where gene of the aimed protein is inserted into a vector represented by a plasmid vector, then the vector is incorporated into the cells and then the aimed protein gene is integrated into the cell genome by means of recombination whereby the cell is transformed has been used frequently.
Genome of a cell is present on a chromosome while, in the chromosome, expression of gene is controlled by histone acetylation, high aggregation (heterochromatin), etc. and the expression level of the gene greatly differs depending upon the place in the chromosome into which the gene is inserted. In a method where the cell is transformed using a vector, it is not possible to control the place in the cell genome into which the aimed protein gene is transferred and, therefore, the expression level of the aimed protein gene in the transformed cell and, as a result, the production amount of the aimed protein are greatly different depending upon the cell strain.
There are also many cases where gene recombination does not proceed well and the aimed protein gene is not integrated with the cell genome.
Under such circumstances, there were conventionally conducted the following operations: a drug-resistant (drug selective marker) gene is inserted into the expression vector previously, this vector is then transferred to the cell, a drug is administered to the medium (drug selection), the cell where the transformation was successful is selected and, after that, the cell strains showing a high expression are repeatedly selected from the resulting cell group. In this method, however, much labor and time were needed since it is necessary to prepare many cell strains and further since a selecting operation for the cells which needs the culture for a long period is carried out repeatedly. Moreover, since the drug-resistant gene shows resistance to a drug even when it is expressed in small amount in many cases, the cell strains where the drug-resistant gene and the aimed protein gene are integrated in the low expression region in the cell genome and the expression amount of the aimed protein gene is small are also present in the living cells, which causes much more labor and time.
Even the cells which showed a sufficient expression upon the selection, not a few of them gradually lower the expression as the culture is continued. That will be due to the fact that the expression is suppressed by a gene silencing. Since it is usually impossible to control the transfer position of the aimed protein gene to the genome, prediction of the lowering of the expressed level by the effect of gene silencing is very difficult. Accordingly, it has been considered to be necessary to mitigate such a position effect so as to stably maintain the expression in a high level.
Thus, for solving those problems, the present invention makes it possible to procure the cells showing a high expression level by utilizing the drug selection and also makes it possible to maintain gene expression at high level by the gene expression stabilizing element regardless of the transfer site of the gene in the cell genome. The present invention exhibits a very significant effect in such a view that the cell strains where productivity of the aimed protein is high are able to be procured quickly, easily and efficiently.
In the present invention, an mRNA destabilizing sequence is utilized in the conventional drug resistance (drug selective marker) gene expression cassette whereby the expressing amount of the drug-resistant gene is greatly suppressed so that only the transformed cells where the drug-resistant gene is integrated in the highly expression region in the host cell genome are able to survive after the drug selection. Since the gene of the aimed protein is integrated near the drug-resistant gene, there is a high possibility that, in the survived cells, the aimed protein gene is also integrated in the highly expression region. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently select only the cells of the following (iii) (i.e. the cells where the gene recombination was successful and, further, the drug-resistant gene and the aimed protein gene were integrated in the highly expression region of the host cell genome) by means of drug selection from the following cells (i)-(iii). Thus, (i): the cells where gene recombination did not proceed well whereby the aimed protein gene was not integrated in the cell genome; (ii): the cells where, although gene recombination was successful, the drug-resistant gene and the aimed protein gene were integrated in the lowly expression region of the host cell genome; and (iii): the cells where the gene recombination was successful and, further, the drug-resistant gene and the aimed protein gene were integrated in the highly expression region of the host cell genome. In the conventional selection method, although it is possible to select the cells of (ii) and (iii) by means of drug selection from the cells of (i) to (iii), it is not possible to select only the cells of (iii) from the cells of (ii) and (iii) by means of drug selection and, therefore, the expression level of the aimed protein gene was separately confirmed for the transformed cells being survived from the drug selection whereby the highly expressing cells of (iii) were selected. In accordance with the method of the present invention, it is now possible to immediately select the highly expressing cells of (iii) from the cells of (i) to (iii) only by means of drug selection and, therefore, said method is efficient and, as a result, the highly expressing cells are able to be quickly selected.
Moreover, in accordance with the present invention, a gene expression stabilizing element is utilized so that a lowering in the expressed level of the gene upon the continuous culture of the selected cells is prevented. The gene expression stabilizing element according to the present invention is not only useful for a stable maintenance of expression of the aimed protein gene but also, in case the effect is available for the drug-resistant gene, reduces the influence of the adjacent chromosome and regulatory element to the expression of the drug-resistant gene and helps the achievement of the function inherent to the drug-resistant gene whereby the synergism with the drug selection is achieved.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, an expression vector which is characterized in having a cassette for expressing the drug selective marker gene containing an mRNA destabilizing sequence, at least one element for stabilizing the gene expression and a cassette for expressing the gene of the aimed protein.
In the present invention, the expression cassette stands for the unit of gene expression from the promoter through the gene coding sequence and to the terminator sequence (polyadenylation signal). Moreover, it may also include introns, spacer sequences, translation enhancement regions, etc. Accordingly, in the case of “drug selective marker gene expression cassette” for example, it means that the gene coding sequence of the above-mentioned expression cassette is a coding sequence of the drug selective marker gene. Further, in the case of “aimed protein gene expression cassette”, it means that the gene coding sequence of the above-mentioned expression cassette is a coding sequence of the aimed protein gene.
(Drug Selective Marker Gene Expression Cassette)
The drug selective marker gene expression cassette used in the present invention has the same constitution as the conventionally known drug selective marker gene expression cassette except that an mRNA destabilizing sequence is contained. Accordingly, the mRNA destabilizing sequence will be firstly illustrated.
The present invention is based on the finding that the mRNA destabilizing sequence is able to very effectively attenuate the expression of the drug-resistant gene. When an expression vector where a drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing the mRNA destabilizing sequence of the present invention is installed is transferred to the host cells, the surviving cell numbers after the drug selection or the colonies thereof decrease to an extent of 1/10 to 1/100 as compared with the case where no mRNA destabilizing sequence is contained. That is probably due to the fact that, since the mRNA of the drug selective marker becomes unstable and the expressed level of the drug selective marker lowers because of the presence of the mRNA destabilizing sequence, survival of the cells under the drug selection becomes difficult unless they are the cells where, in the genome of the host cells, said expression cassette is integrated in the highly expression region in which the transcription activity is high.
The term “mRNA destabilizing sequence” means a nucleotide sequence having a function of reducing the intracellular half life of the mRNA transcribed from the DNA having this sequence and, in the natural world, it has been found to be present in the early response genes, etc.
Although the mRNA destabilizing sequence is present in a coding sequence or in a 5′-UTR (untranslated region) in some genes, it is present in a 3′-UTR in many cases. AU-rich element (ARE), histone mRNA 3′-terminal stem-loop, iron-responsive element (IRE), insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II), long stem-loop, etc. have been known as the mRNA destabilized sequence existing in the 3′-UTR. Among them, ARE is preferred as the mRNA destabilizing sequence used in the present invention since it is able to constantly destabilize mRNA.
ARE means “AU rich element” in mRNA or, in other words, a sequence or the region where adenine (A) and uracil (U) are contained in high rates. ARE is also used for designating “AT-rich element” in DNA coding for the above element or, in other words, a sequence or a region where adenine (A) and thymine (T) are contained in high rates.
ARE is found in cytokine gene such as hematopoietic cell growth factor gene, growth factor gene, interleukin gene or interferon and also in some proto-oncogenes (Non-Patent Document 4). In the drug selective marker gene expression cassette of the present invention, although the nucleic acid sequence corresponding to ARE in such a gene may be utilized as it is, utilization of TATTTAT (Non-Patent Document 5) and TTATTTA (T/A) (T/A) (Non-Patent Document 6) or the like known as a motif sequence in the ARE is highly convenient since insertion of unnecessary restriction enzyme recognition sequence into an expression vector is able to be avoided.
Examples of the gene having ARE include granulocyte-monocyte colony sitimulation factor (GM-CSF) for the hematopoietic cell growth factor, interleukin-1β, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 for the interleukin, interferon-α for the interferon, and c-fos, c-myc, c-jun, c-myb, Pim-1 etc. for the proto-oncogene. Besides them, many genes such as tumor necrosis factor, cyclin D1, cyclooxygenase, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 2 have been known to have ARE and there is no limitation to the exemplified gene only.
With regard to the mRNA destabilizing sequence which is able to be used in the drug selective marker gene expression cassette of the present invention, the following ones are exemplified.
One motif sequence of ATTT or repetition thereof for two or more times.
One motif sequence of ATTTA or repetition thereof for two or more times.
One motif sequence of TATTTAT or repetition thereof for two or more times.
One motif sequence of TTATTTA (T/A) (T/A) or repetition thereof for two or more times. Here, (T/A) means any of T or A.
The sequences as such may contain substitution/insertion/deletion of one or more base(s) and those by natural variation such as error in duplication of DNA or mutation and those by transfer of artificial mutation may be expected. Moreover, a spacer sequence or a linker sequence comprising 1 to about 100 base(s) may be contained between the repetition of the motif sequences. In addition, the thing which contains inversion of the motif sequence may be available.
Although the number of repetitions of the motif sequence may be only one, the destabilizing effect on mRNA is able to be further enhanced when it is made two or more times or, more preferably, four or more times whereby the selection efficiency is able to be significantly increased.
Although there is no particular limitation for the upper limit of the number of repetitions, it is desirable that the expression vector becomes the length of 10 to 25 kbp at the highest in view of the incorporation of the vector into the cells. However, as the number of repetitions increases, the destabilizing effect on mRNA goes toward saturation and, when the number of repetitions is more than a certain level, no further significant effect is able to be expected. Although no upper limit will be decided, number of repetitions of 10 times or more is practically meaningless.
Although there is no particular limitation for the promoter in the drug selective marker gene expression cassette of the present invention so far as it is a promoter which is able to be expressed in animal cells or, particularly, in mammalian cells, examples thereof include that derived from virus such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter of human or mouse, simian virus 40 (SV40) promoter or human herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase gene (HSV-tk) promoter; that derived from nonviral cell gene such as phosphoglycerate-kinase 1 gene (PGK) promoter of mouse; and a hybrid of promoters of different origins. Here, the promoter is not limited to the core region of promoter but it may include an enhancer region. In order to attenuate the expression of the drug selective marker, that having a low transcription activity is more preferred. As a promoter having a low transcription activity, a promoter of a mutation type or the like may be utilized or Kozak sequence may be substituted therefor. In addition, it is one of the expected embodiments that the repeating number of the motif sequence of mRNA destabilizing sequence is made small and a promoter having a weak transcription activity is used together.
With regard to a drug used for the drug selection using the drug selective marker expression cassette of the present invention, blasticidin, geneticin (G418), hygromycin (Hyg), puromycin (Pur) may be exemplified as an antibiotic substance of a protein synthesis inhibition type. Examples of other drugs for the selection include methotrexate (MTX), MSX (methionine sulphoximine) etc. In addition, as to the drug selective marker gene in the drug selective marker gene expression cassette of the present invention, gene showing the resistance to the drug which is commonly used in the drug selection is used advantageously. When an antibiotic substance of a protein synthesis inhibition type is used as a drug, it is preferred to use the gene which is resistant to the antibiotic substance of a protein synthesis inhibiting type. Although there is no particular limitation thereto, examples thereof include neomycin phosphotransferase (aminoglycoside 3′-phosphotransferase) (Neo) derived from Tn5 as a neomycin-resistant gene (also having a function as a Geneticin-resistant gene), hygromycin-B-phosphotransferase (Hph; in Examples and drawings, it is mentioned as Hyg) derived from Escherichia coli as a hygromycin-resistant gene, puromycin-N-acetyltransferase gene (pac; in Examples and drawings, it is mentioned as Pur) derived from Streptomyces as a puromycin-resistant gene and blasticidin-resistant gene (bsr) derived from Bacillus cereus as a blasticidin-resistant gene. Among them, puromycin-N-acetyltransferase, hygromycin-B-phosphotransferase and neomycin phosphotransferase are preferred. Puromycin-N-acetyltransferase and hygromycin-B-phosphotransferase are more preferred, and puromycin-N-acetyltransferase is much more preferred.
As to the polyadenylation signal (terminator sequence) in the drug selective marker gene expression cassette of the present invention, examples thereof include late poly A signal derived from SV 40 virus, early poly A signal derived from SV 40 virus, poly A signal derived from HSV-tk, poly A signal derived from bovine growth factor gene and poly A signal derived from rabbit β-globin gene although they are non-limitative.
Although there is no particular limitation for the order of the arrangement of promoter, drug selective marker gene, mRNA destabilizing sequence and polyadenylation signal in the drug selective marker gene expression cassette of the present invention so far as expression of the drug selective marker gene is possible, it is usual that promoter, drug selective marker gene, mRNA destabilizing sequence and polyadenylation signal are arranged in this order from the upstream side to the downstream side. There is no need that those four elements are directly connected each other but, if desired, they may have introns, spacer sequences, translation enhancement regions, etc. between them.
(Gene Expression Stabilizing Element)
The term “gene expression stabilizing element” in the present invention means a nucleic acid region which solves the position effect and has a function of stabilizing the gene expression. The position effect is such that, in order to increase the productivity of the aimed protein, the aimed gene expression cassette is affected by the activating state of the transcription of genome near the site in the host genome into which the cassette has been inserted.
As to the nucleic acid sequence having a function of stabilizing the gene expression, there may be utilized insulator, scaffold/matrix binding region (S/MAR), locus control region (LCR), Ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE), etc.
Examples of the insulator include 1.2 kb DNase I hypersensitive site (cHS4) derived from chicken β-globin LCR and URI derived from green sea urchin. Examples of the S/MAR include chicken lysozyme 5′MAR element, human β-globin MAR element and human interferon βSAR element.
The expression vector of the present invention has at least one gene expression stabilizing element. When the nucleic acid sequence having the function of stabilizing the gene expression as such is aligned either at upstream or downstream region or both of the expression cassette of the aimed protein, it is possible to stably maintain the gene expression and to increase the productivity of the aimed protein.
A plasmid vector is usually used as a gene construct for transferring the aimed gene into the host cell genome. The size of the gene expression stabilizing element is preferred to be as short as possible since the size of the plasmid vector is 10 to 25 kbp at the longest. Preferred size is 5 kbp or shorter and, more preferably, it is about 1 kbp.
The gene expression stabilizing element in the preferred embodiment of the present invention is a nucleic acid molecule which was identified by the present inventors from the CHO cell DR 1000L-4N strain (CHO cell-4N strain) mentioned in the Patent Document 5. Said strain is a clone cell of a telomere type which was obtained by such a manner that a human granulocyte microphage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) gene as an exogenous gene was transferred into an expression vector having DHFR gene, the vector was transferred into a CHO cell DG 44 strain where DHFR gene was deficient, the transferred strain was cultured in a medium where 10% fetal bovine serum was added to an IMDM medium (containing no nucleic acid) to obtain a transformant, the resulting transformant was further selected by a medium to which an IMDM medium (containing no nucleic acid) and 10% dialyzed fetal bovine serum were added and further cultured in an IMDM medium containing 50 nM or 100 nM of methotrexate (MTX) and containing no nucleic acid until an increase of copy numbers of the transgene to an extent of 10 to 100 times was achieved by raising MTX concentration.
Genome of eukaryotic cell is classified into two classes of chromatins, i.e. euchromatin and heterochromatin. Sequences of centromere and telomere are main parts of the constitutive heterochromatin. Particularly, telomere consists of a repeated sequence of TTAGGG and a subtelomere region and is a gene-poor region having a striking conformation of heterochromatin (Non-Patent Documents 7, 8). In addition to its contribution to the stability of genome and to its protective role, telomere also affects the expression of gene transferred to the near site as a result of a phenomenon known as a telomere position effect (Non-Patent Documents 9, 10).
However, in spite of the fact that DR 1000L-4N strain is a clone cell of a telomere type, the exogenous gene transferred therein did not receive an influence of inactivation from the heterogeneous chromosome near the transferred site but maintained the high production of hGM-CSF in a stable manner in a culture for a long period. This suggests that a boundary element which strongly shuts off the progress of inactivation is present near the site to which the exogeneous gene is transferred whereby the expression of gene is made stable.
The present inventors have analyzed the sequence near the site to which the exogenous gene is transferred in the DR 1000L-4N strain and, as a result, they have found that DNA consisting of the sequence of about 91 kbp as shown in SEQ ID No: 26 in the Sequence Listing participates in stabilization of the gene expression.
Length of the gene expression stabilizing element contained in the expression vector of the present invention is preferred to be short. Accordingly, in order to narrow down the region having a gene expression stabilizing effect even in a smaller size, the present inventors have carried out further studies.
In order to further analyze the sequence of about 91 kbp shown in SEQ ID No: 26, a method where a library of fragments of about 3 kbp by a shotgun technique is prepared and each of the fragments is assayed one after another has been commonly used. However, in analyzing whether each fragment has a gene stabilizing effect, long time is needed for the transformation and the culture of the cell whereby a period of several weeks to several months are required for one assay. Accordingly, enormous time and labor are necessary for carrying out the total assay.
Under such circumstances, the present inventors have found a method where, in the sequence of SEQ ID No: 26, analysis is conducted laying stress on the site in which the boundary element of the gene expression sequence is expected to exist. As a result, they have found that, in the DNA consisting of SEQ ID No: 26, the regions near 42 kbp, 45 kbp and 91 kbp have a gene expression stabilizing function.
When the sequence was more precisely analyzed, it was found that, in the sequence, the four regions of (i) a region shown by from the 41820th base to the 41839th base, (ii) a region shown by from the 41821st base to the 41840th base, (iii) a region shown by from the 45182nd base to the 45200th base and (iv) a region shown by from the 91094th base to the 91113th base corresponded to the binding sequence motifs of the insulator binding protein CTCF. Accordingly, the neighbor of those regions including at least any of those four regions particularly participates in the stabilization of gene expression.
In the embodiments according to the present invention, any of the following (a) to (e) or a combination thereof is able to be used as a gene expression stabilizing element:
(a) a DNA consisting of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(b) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing at least the sequence of the region from the 41820th base to the 41839th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(c) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing at least the sequence of the region from the 41821st base to the 41840th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26;
(d) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing at least the sequence of the region from the 45182nd base to the 45200th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26; and
(e) a DNA consisting of a partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and containing at least the sequence of the region from the 91094th base to the 91113th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26.
Although those elements are isolated from the CHO genome and identified, the elements which are homologous to those elements are expected to be present in other mammalian cell genome as well. Therefore, (f) a DNA consisting of the partial sequence of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26, wherein when it is aligned to be adjacent to the cassette for expressing the exogenous gene in the host cells, expression of the aimed recombinant protein from the exogenous gene contained in the cassette for expressing the exogenous gene is able to be increased or stabilized can also be used as a gene expression stabilizing element. The homologous elements as such are able to be easily isolated and identified by well-known techniques in this technical field such as interspecific hybridization or PCR.
It is also and of course possible to use (g) a DNA which hybridizes under a stringent condition to a DNA consisting of the base sequence complementary to any of the DNAs in the above (a) to (f) and has a gene expression stabilizing function, as a gene expression stabilizing element. The gene expression stabilizing element of the present invention comprises any one of those (a) to (g) or any combination thereof. Moreover, (h) a DNA which consists of the base sequence complementary to any of the DNAs in the above (a) to (g) also has a gene expression stabilizing function and is able to be used as a gene expression stabilizing element and, therefore, it is also included in the present invention.
A stringent condition is a condition of, for example, 40 to 50° C. in 0.2×SSC containing 0.1% of SDS or 55 to 65° C. in 2×SSC containing 0.1% of SDS, although it is different depending on the probe and labeling method used. More stringent condition is able to be decided based on the melting temperature (Tm value) of the nucleic acid to be bound. Further, as a washing condition after the hybridization, a condition of such an extent of “6×SSC, 0.1% SDS and the temperature of about 15 to 30° C. lower than the Tm value” may be exemplified. As a more stringent washing condition, a condition of such an extent of “2×SSC, 0.1% SDS and the temperature of about 5 to 15° C. lower than the Tm value” may be exemplified. As much more stringent washing condition, a condition of such an extent of “1×SSC, 0.1% SDS and the temperature of about 5 to 15° C. lower than the Tm value” may be exemplified. As still much more washing stringent condition, a condition of such an extent “0.1×SSC and 0.1% SDS”, may be exemplified.
In the preferred embodiment of the gene expression stabilizing element of the present invention, the DNAs in the above (b) or (c) are a region from the 41601st base to the 46746th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26; or a base sequence region which hybridizes under a stringent condition to a DNA consisting of the base sequence complementary to the sequence from the 41601st base to the 46746th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and has a gene expression stabilizing function. A base sequence complementary to the DNAs consisting of these regions is also contained. In the more preferred embodiment of the gene expression stabilizing element, the DNAs in the above (b) or (c) are a region from the 41601st base to the 42700th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26; a base sequence region which hybridizes under a stringent condition to a DNA consisting of the base sequence complementary to the region shown from the 41601st base to the 42700th base of the sequence shown in SEQ ID No: 26 and has a gene expression stabilizing function; or a base sequence complementary to the DNAs comprising these regions.
In this technical field, an expression vector equipped with a multiple cloning site is frequently used for a purpose of an efficient insertion of various aimed protein genes into the expression vector. When the recognition sequence for restriction enzyme used for the multiple cloning site is present in the sequence of the gene expression stabilizing element, said sequence is unable to be utilized for the multiple cloning site. Therefore, the restriction enzyme recognition sequence is deleted from the sequence of the gene expression stabilizing element without deteriorating the gene expression stabilizing function whereupon it is now possible to use said sequence for the multiple cloning site.
In the production of biopharmaceuticals, what is particularly demanded in recent years is an antibody molecule and, for the cloning of the antibody gene, it is preferred to use a restriction enzyme where no recognition sequence is present in the antibody gene as the multiple cloning site. Since the antibody for drugs is mostly occupied by IgG, the present inventors analyzed the base sequence of immunoglobulin heavy chain γ1 gene (for example, GeneBank Acc. No. AK057754), γ2 gene (for example, GeneBank Acc. No. BC062335), γ3 gene (for example, GeneBank Acc. No. BX538126), γ4 gene (for example, GeneBank Acc. No. BX640824), immunoglobulin light chain K gene (for example, GeneBank Acc. No. AY894991), λ1 gene (for example, GeneBank Acc. No. BC007782), λ2 gene (for example, GeneBank Acc. No. X57809), and pUC18 vector (except the multiple cloning site) used for the base of the expression vector construction. As the restriction enzyme which has no recognition sequence in any of the gene sequence and which forms the protruding end, a restriction enzyme such as AscI, BsiWI, BssHII, BstBI (Csp45I, NspV), CpoI, CspI (RsrII), FseI, HindIII, MfeI, MluI, NotI, PacI, PaeR71, SgrA1, SphI, XbaI, and XhoI were exemplified. In addition, BclI, BglII, BlpI, EcoRI, SalI, and SpeI are exemplified as an enzyme which cleaves one or two gene(s) but is able to be relatively easily utilized for gene recombination.
On the other hand, in the case of a restriction enzyme which forms a blunt end, it is able to be connected regardless of the sequence if the terminal end of the aimed protein gene is blunted and, therefore, it is preferred as a recognition sequence contained in the multiple cloning site. Examples of the restriction enzyme producing the blunt end as such include EcoR105I (SnaBI), EcoRV, NruI, PsiI, SmaI, and SrfI.
Thus, other preferred embodiment of the gene expression stabilizing element in the present invention is a sequence having a gene expression stabilizing function and being modified so as to delete the recognition sequence of at least one restriction enzyme selected from AscI, BsiWI, BssHII, BstBI (or called as Csp45I or NspV), CpoI, CspI (or called as RsrII), FseI, HindIII, MfeI, MluI, NotI, PacI, PaeR71, SgrA1, SphI, XbaI, XhoI, BclI, BglII, BlpI, EcoRI, SalI, SpeI, EcoR105I (or called as SnaBI), EcoRV, NruI, PsiI, SmaI, and SrfI.
For the purpose that the gene expression stabilizing element of the present invention achieves its expression stabilizing effect, it is necessary that the element is aligned at the position adjacent to the introducing site for the exogenous gene expression cassette in the host cell genome. Although there is no particular limitation for the term “adjacent to” in the present invention, it preferably means that the distance between the gene expression stabilizing element and the exogenous gene expression cassette of the present invention is 5000 by or shorter, and more preferably 500 by or shorter.
It is possible to achieve such an adjacent alignment by such a manner that a mixture of the nucleic acid sequence fragment containing the element of the present invention and the nucleic acid sequence fragment containing the exogenous gene expression cassette is transferred into the host cells by means of electroporation or transfection and the host cell clone showing high expressed level of the exogenous gene is selected. It is, however, desirable for surely achieving the adjacent alignment that the exogenous gene expression vector containing the gene expression stabilizing element of the present invention and the exogenous gene expression cassette which is adjacently aligned thereto are previously prepared and the host cell is transformed by this vector.
(The Cassette for Expressing the Aimed Protein Gene)
The cassette for expressing the aimed protein gene in the present invention comprises a promoter, a gene coding sequence and a terminator sequence (polyadenylation signal). It may further contain introns, spacer sequences and translation enhancing regions. With regard to the expression promoter for the aimed protein gene, it is preferred to have a transcription activity of as high as possible and examples thereof include that derived from virus such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter of human or mouse or simian virus 40 (SV40) promoter; that derived from nonviral cell gene such as elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1α) derived from human, mouse or CHO, ubiquitin gene or β-actin gene; and a hybrid of promoter/enhancer where the origins are different such as CAG promoter.
In the present invention, the cassette for expressing the aimed protein gene is given in an independent form from the drug selective marker expression cassette. In the case of eukaryotic cells, although there is a means where a polycistronic expression is conducted in which the drug selective marker gene is connected to the aimed protein gene by the internal ribosome entry sites (IRES), mRNA of the aimed protein gene decreases when the above mRNA destabilizing sequence is inserted since coding sequences of the aimed protein gene and the drug selective marker gene are synthesized as one mRNA whereupon no highly expressing cell is able to be produced. Therefore, it is preferred in the present invention that the aimed protein gene expression cassette is aligned independently to the drug selective marker expression cassette. Although the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the drug selective marker expression cassette may be utilized in the forms of different vectors, it is more preferred that the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the drug selective marker expression cassette are aligned on the same vector.
In the aimed protein gene expression cassette, a multiple cloning site comprising a plurality of restriction enzyme recognition sequence is able to be aligned in place of the coding sequence of said protein gene. That is simple and convenient in the cloning operation upon transfer of coding sequence or cDNA of exogenous gene and is preferred.
Another embodiment is an aimed protein gene expression cassette in which the aimed protein is a polypeptide of heavy chain and/or light chain of an antibody. In that case, the aimed protein expression cassette may be aligned in plural or may be a polycistronic expression cassette where a plurality of polypeptide gene is connected by IRES.
A specific embodiment of the present invention being adoptable in the production of an antibody is an expression vector which is characterized in having a drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing an mRNA destabilizing sequence, at least one gene expression stabilizing element and an antibody gene expression cassette containing a constant region gene of light chain of the antibody and/or an antibody gene expression cassette containing a constant region gene of heavy chain of the antibody.
The antibody gene expression cassette in the present invention means an expression cassette for expressing the light chain polypeptide gene or the heavy polypeptide gene of the antibody molecule or for expressing the antibody molecule. The term “containing a constant region gene” stands for that gene of the constant region of heavy chain or light chain of the antibody is inserted as the gene coding sequence of the expression cassette. When the gene of the variable region of the desired antibody is inserted into the position to which control of the expression cassette governs, a complete antibody molecule is able to be expressed.
An antibody consists of light and heavy chains and, further, each of the light and heavy chains consists of constant region (also called “C region” or “constant part”) and variable region (also called “V region” or “variable part”). The constant region of the light chain has two types of κ and λ while the constant region of the heavy chain is classified into the types of α, δ, ε, γ, and μ corresponding to the classes of immunoglobulin IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, and IgM, respectively. Moreover, γ is further classified, for example, into γ1, γ2, γ3, and γ4 corresponding to the subclass of IgG. Although there is no particular limitation for the type of the constant region to be inserted, it is preferred in view of the production of IgG that the constant region of light chain is κ or λ while the constant region of heavy chain is γ, and it is more preferred that the constant region of heavy chain is γ1. A sequence coding for the gene of a leader peptide is able to be inserted into the antibody gene expression cassette to such an area which is downstream region of the promoter and upstream region of the constant region gene of the antibody. A leader peptide is a hydrophobic peptide comprising 15 to 20 amino acids and works for such a purpose that the light or heavy chain immediately after translation and synthesis passes through the membrane of the rough-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum and, at that time, it is cut off.
It is desirable that the variable region gene of the antibody is inserted into the upstream region of the constant region gene in the antibody gene expression cassette and, when a leader peptide gene is inserted into the antibody gene expression cassette, it is desired to be inserted into the downstream region of the leader peptide gene. When the expression vector has no leader peptide, it is preferred that a leader peptide is inserted together with the variable region gene. Although there is no limitation for the distance between the promoter and the variable region gene and between the variable region gene and the constant region gene, the distance between the promoter and the variable region gene is preferred to be 1.2 kbp or less, and more preferred to be 500 by or less. With regard to the variable region gene and the constant region gene, they are preferred to be just adjacent.
(An Expression Vector)
In the present invention, an expression vector is a vector which is utilized in gene engineering. The expression vector may be a plasmid vector but is not limited thereto but virus vector, cosmid vector, bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC), yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) and other non-plasmid vector may be used as well.
An embodiment of the expression vector in the present invention is an expression vector wherein a gene expression stabilizing element is aligned on the upstream or downstream region of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the drug selective marker gene expression cassette. Preferably, it is the expression vector wherein a gene expression stabilizing element is aligned on the upstream region of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the drug selective marker gene expression cassette. In that case, although any of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the drug selective marker gene expression cassette may be in the upstream region, it is preferred that the aimed protein gene expression cassette is aligned in the upstream region.
Another embodiment in the present invention is the vector where a gene stabilizing element is aligned between the drug selective marker gene expression cassette and the aimed protein gene expression cassette. As to a specific embodiment, although any of the embodiment where the gene expression stabilizing element is aligned in a downstream region of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the upstream region of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette and the embodiment where the gene expression stabilizing element is aligned in a downstream region of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette and the upstream region of the aimed protein gene expression cassette may be considered, a preferred one is a vector where the gene expression stabilizing element is aligned in a downstream region of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the upstream region of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette.
A preferred embodiment of the expression vector in the present invention is the vector where a gene expression stabilizing element is aligned in the upstream and downstream regions of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the drug selective marker gene expression cassette so as to sandwich those expression cassettes. Although the order of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and the drug selective marker gene expression cassette is not limited, it is preferred that the aimed protein gene expression cassette is aligned in the upstream region. It is also possible that the gene expression stabilizing elements are aligned in the upstream and downstream regions of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette, respectively.
Another preferred embodiment of the present invention is the vector where the gene expression stabilizing elements are aligned in the upstream and downstream regions of the aimed protein gene expression cassette and, in the downstream region thereof, the drug selective marker gene expression cassette is further aligned.
It is also possible to carry out the expression vector where the aimed protein gene expression cassette is aligned in the downstream region of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette and the gene expression stabilizing element is aligned between the drug selective marker gene expression cassette and the aimed protein gene expression cassette and also in the downstream region of the aimed protein gene expression cassette.
The area between the gene expression stabilizing element and the drug selective marker gene expression cassette or the aimed protein gene expression cassette may be adjacent or a spacer sequence or the like may be inserted therebetween.
When the above drug selective marker gene expression cassette and the aimed gene protein expression cassette are aligned on the same vector, they may be adjacent or a spacer sequence is inserted thereinto. Although the aimed protein gene expression cassette is aligned in any of the upstream and downstream regions of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette, in case they are inserted in an adjacent manner, an alignment where the aimed protein gene expression cassette is in the upstream region is preferred. It is also possible that an insulator sequence for suppressing the transcriptional interference of the adjacent expression cassette is inserted as a spacer sequence.
Two or more drug selective marker gene expression cassettes may be contained in one vector. In that case, the same drug selective markers may be selected or the drug selective markers which are different each other may be selected. Each of the drug selective markers may be adjacently aligned or may be aligned apart.
When the aimed protein comprises a plurality of polypeptide such as in the case of heavy chain and light chain of the antibody, the aimed protein gene expression cassette may be aligned in plural or a plurality of polypeptide gene are connected by IRES to make into a form of a polycistronic expression cassette.
It is also possible that each of a plurality of polypeptide expression cassettes is inserted into the vectors which are different each other and then each vector is transferred into a host cell to prepare a transformed cell whereupon an aimed protein is able to be produced. In that case, a drug selective marker gene expression cassette is able to be aligned to each vector and, although the same drug selective marker may be used for each, it is advantageous to use the different drug selective marker in such a view that the cells where all of the polypeptides show high efficiency are able to be efficiently prepared.
In a comparison between the case where the heavy chain polypeptide gene and the light chain polypeptide gene of the antibody are inserted into different vector to express whereby an antibody is produced and the case where the heavy chain polypeptide gene and the light chain polypeptide gene of the antibody are inserted into the same vector to express whereby an antibody is produced, there is no difference between the two in terms of the productivity of the antibody. Accordingly, it is possible to obtain a cell strain showing a high productivity in any of the methods but, when expression is conducted by insertion of the heavy chain polypeptide gene and the light chain polypeptide gene of the antibody into the same vector, the outcome is that one kind of drug-resistant gene on the same vector is used and, therefore, the differences in the transgene numbers are able to be reduced, productions of the heavy chain polypeptide and the light chain polypeptide of the antibody are well-balanced and the productivity as an antibody consisting of two sets of two polypeptides of heavy and light chains is stabilized whereby that is preferred.
One of the specific embodiments of the expression vector in the present invention is an expression vector which is characterized in having a drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing an mRNA destabilizing sequence, three or more gene expression stabilizing elements and two or more aimed protein gene expression cassettes.
In that case, it is preferred that, among the three or more gene expression stabilizing elements, at least one is aligned between any of the two or more aimed protein gene expression cassettes. Thus, when there are two aimed protein gene expression cassettes, the gene expression stabilizing element is aligned between those expression cassettes. When there are three aimed protein gene expression cassettes, the element is aligned between the first and the second aimed protein gene expression cassettes, between the second and the third aimed protein gene expression cassettes or between the both. That is also the same when there are four or more aimed protein gene expression cassettes.
In this embodiment of the present invention where the expression vector has three or more gene expression stabilizing elements, the gene expression stabilizing element is aligned between the aimed protein gene expression cassettes in the case of preparing an expression vector which expresses protein consisting of two or more polypeptides such as immunoglobulin whereby it is possible to achieve further suppressive effect to the gene silencing. As a result, the cell strain where the production amount of the aimed protein significantly increases due to synergism is able to be obtained.
One of other specific embodiments of the expression vector of the present invention is an expression vector which contains two or more constitutions where the alignment is done to give such a position that [(gene expression stabilizing element)−(aimed protein gene expression cassette)n−(drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing mRNA destabilizing sequence)] (where n is an integer of 1 to 4).
Hereinabove, (aimed protein gene expression cassette)n means that the (aimed protein gene expression cassette) in the numbers of n is continuously aligned and neither gene expression stabilizing element nor drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing mRNA destabilizing sequence is aligned between them. That is the same for (aimed protein gene expression cassette)m, (aimed protein gene expression cassette)p and (aimed protein gene expression cassette)q as well.
Another one of other specific embodiments is an expression vector which contains two or more constitutions where the alignment is done to give such a position that [(gene expression stabilizing element)−(aimed protein gene expression cassette)m−(gene expression stabilizing element)−(aimed protein gene expression cassette)p−(drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing mRNA destabilizing sequence)] (where m is an integer of 1 to 4, and p is an integer of 1 to 4).
Still another one of other specific embodiments of the present invention is an expression vector which contains two or more constitutions where the alignment is done to give such a position that [(gene expression stabilizing element)−(aimed protein gene expression cassette)q (where q is an integer of 1 to 4), with a drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing an mRNA destabilizing sequence aligned in their downstream.
In those embodiments of the present invention, it is not intended that the expression vector does not contain the constitution elements other than those constitutions. For example, in addition to those, it is also possible that a gene expression stabilizing element is also aligned to the downstream region of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing the mRNA destabilizing sequence.
Further, when two or more aimed protein gene expression cassettes are aligned continuously in those embodiments, at least one gene expression stabilizing element may be additionally aligned between any of the aimed protein gene expression cassettes. Thus, if two or more aimed protein gene expression cassettes are aligned continuously, the gene expression stabilizing element is able to be aligned between the expression cassettes. If three aimed protein gene expression cassettes are aligned continuously, it may be aligned between the first and the second aimed protein gene expression cassettes or between the second and the third aimed protein gene expression cassettes or may be aligned between both. When there are four aimed protein gene expression cassettes, the alignment is the same.
Since the expression vectors of the present invention in those embodiments where a plurality of the constituting elements are aligned (concatemerized) is equipped with a plurality of aimed protein gene expression cassettes, a plurality of copies of the aimed protein gene expression cassettes are able to be inserted on the cell genome at one time and an increase in the expressed level of protein is able to be expected. Further, since a plurality of copies are inserted into the cell genome in the case of the drug selective marker gene expression cassette containing mRNA destabilizing sequence and gene expression stabilizing element as well, additional big contribution is resulted for establishment of the highly productive cell strain due to the synergism thereof.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a transformed cell which is characterized in being obtained by transformation of the host cell by the expression vector according to the first aspect of the present invention.
Examples of the host cell in the transformed cell of the present invention include mouse myeloma cell (NSO), baby hamster kidney cell (BHK), human fibrosarcoma cell (HT1080) and COS cell which are derived from mammals in addition to Chinese hamster ovary cell (CHO) which is commonly used for the production of recombinant protein. However, they are non-limitative but the cells derived from animals such as human, mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, dogs, cows, horses, sheep, monkeys or swine are also widely made into the objects for the transfer. Further, it is also able to be applied to the protein production system using bacterial cells such as Escherichia coli, yeasts, insect cells, etc.
In general, in the industrial production of biopharmaceuticals for example, it has been demanded for excluding the contamination of harmful components such as virus that the produced cells are cultured in a medium containing no animal components or, more preferably, in a medium where the composition is chemically defined. For such a purpose, it has been said to be necessary that, after the highly productive cells are screened in a commonly used medium containing fetal bovine serum or the like, the cells are adapted to a medium containing no animal component or to a chemically defined medium during about one to two month(s) (serum-free adaptation). However, there may also the case where the highly productive cells which were once obtained are not well adapted. Accordingly, when gene transfer is carried out to the cells which were subjected to a serum-free adaptation in advance, time for establishing the producing cells is able to be shortened by eliminating the serum-free adaptation and that is very effective. In order to achieve the problem as such, the host cells used for the present invention further include the cells which were already subjected to a serum-free adaptation in CHO cells, etc.
A method for the transformation of host cells may be appropriately selected if conducted by persons skilled in the art and examples thereof include a lipofection method, a calcium phosphate method, an electroporation method, a DEAF dextran method and a microinjection.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for selecting a cell group which expresses the aimed protein gene in a high level, characterized in that, the method comprises a step of subjecting the transformed cell according to the second aspect of the present invention to a drug selection. Also, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cell group, characterized in that, it consists of the transformed cell according to the second aspect of the present invention and stably expresses the aimed protein gene in a high level.
A drug used for the drug selection is decided depending upon the type of the drug selective marker gene in the drug selective marker gene expression cassette. With regard to the concentration of the drug used, although highly expressing cells are able to be concentrated within a range of commonly used concentrations, a bit higher concentration is preferred. The optimum concentration varies depending upon the type of the host cells and the medium used. A method for setting the concentration has been known among persons skilled in the art and is able to be appropriately set. For example, when Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells being used as producing cells for industry are cultured in a Ham's F12 medium containing 10% of fetal bovine serum and a puromycin-resistant gene expression cassette is utilized, the concentration of puromycin is not lower than 5 μg/ml, more preferably not lower than 7.5 μg/ml and, still more preferably, not lower than 10 μg/ml. Concentration of hygromycin B when a hygromycin-resistant gene expression cassette is utilized under the same culture conditions is not lower than 200 μg/ml, more preferably not lower than 600 μg/ml, and much more preferably not lower than 800 μg/ml. Concentration of G 418 when a neomycin-resistant gene expression cassette is utilized under the same cultivating conditions is preferably not lower than 400 μg/ml, more preferably not lower than 800 μg/ml, and much more preferably not lower than 1,000 μg/ml.
In a selecting method of the present invention, rate of the cells which express the aimed protein gene in a high level becomes significantly high as compared with the cell group subjected to the conventional drug selection using the drug selective marker gene expression cassette without an mRNA destabilizing sequence. Accordingly, up to now, an operation for selecting the cell strain which expresses the aimed protein gene in a high level from the enormous samples after the drug selection had to be carried out repeatedly. However, in accordance with the present invention, numbers of the sample which is to be a candidate for the selection are able to be greatly narrowed down only by means of the drug selection including the destabilization of mRNA of the drug selective marker. When the selection method of the present invention is used, production amount of the aimed protein significantly rises in the state of a cell group (polyclone) being survived even after the drug selection and, when the cells are isolated from such a cell group followed by culturing, a cell strain (monoclone) showing a high expression is able to be easily procured. In an example of the embodiments of the present invention, the vector into which the drug selective marker gene expression cassette of the present invention is inserted is transferred to 4.0×105 cells, then 100 cell strains are randomly selected from the cell group resulted by subjecting to the drug selection and the expressed level of each cell strain is checked whereupon a highly expressing strain of the aimed protein is able to be easily obtained.
An expression level of the cell is able to be checked by an expressed level of the reporter gene and an example thereof is that an expression cassette containing a fluorescent protein gene such as SNAP26m gene (manufactured by Covalys) or GFP gene (green fluorescent protein) is transferred into the expression vector of the present invention and the fluorescence intensity is analyzed using a flow cytometer such as a FACS (fluorescence activated cell sorting) whereby a checking is able to be done. Another example is that an expression cassette containing a luciferase gene is transferred into an expression vector of the present invention, D-luciferin is then added to the cell lysate and the light-emitting amount is measured by a luminometer whereby a checking is able to be done. It is also possible to check the expression of the aimed protein such as an antibody by utilizing ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), enzyme immunoassay (EIA), etc. without using a receptor gene.
In accordance with the present invention, not only the steps and the time for the cell selection are able to be greatly shortened but also the rate of the cells showing a high expression rises whereby the cells which express the aimed protein gene in high level are able to be procured efficiently and within short time and, as compared with the prior art, a very remarkable effect is achieved.
For example, when the expressed level of SNAP26m is measured by FACS Calibur (manufactured by Becton, Dickinson and Company) at the fluorescence intensity of FL 1, the resulting effect in the present invention is that the ratio of the cells where FL1 is 200 or more or 1,000 or more is 1.1 times or higher or, in many cases, 1.5 to 2 times higher as compared with the cells obtained by using the drug selective marker gene expression cassette without an mRNA destabilizing sequence. Further, there is observed a tendency that an increasing rate of the ratio of the cell where FL1 is 1,000 or more is higher than an increasing rate of the ratio of the cell where FL1 is 200 or more and it supports the effect that the cell group selected by the present invention shows a higher expression than the cells obtained by using the drug selective marker gene expression cassette without an mRNA destabilizing sequence.
Further, in the cells which are transformed by an expression vector having a gene stabilizing element and an mRNA destabilizing sequence in accordance with the present invention, the ratio of the cells showing the high productivity is improved to an extent of 7 to 8 times as compared with the case using an expression vector having neither gene stabilizing element nor mRNA destabilizing sequence. In the cells which are transformed by an expression vector having only a gene expression stabilizing element, an excellent effect is noted where the ratio of the cells showing a high productivity increased to an extent of about two times but, in the present invention, far significant effect is achieved due to the synergism of the mRNA destabilizing sequence and the gene expression stabilizing element.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for producing a protein, characterized in that, the transformed cell according to the second aspect of the present invention is used.
In an embodiment, the produced protein is antibody. In that case, the heavy chain polypeptide gene and the light chain polypeptide gene of the antibody may be inserted into the same vector (single vector) or each of them may be inserted into different vectors forming two constructs.
It has been clarified already that, in the antibody of mammals, there are five kinds of classes including IgM, IgD, IgG, IgA, and IgE. In diagnosis, prevention and treatment of various kinds of human diseases, an antibody of human IgG class has been mostly utilized in view of the functional characteristics such as that the half life in blood is long, various kinds of effector functions are available, etc. Antibody is able to be purified from the supernatant of the culture of the transformed cells using a protein A column. Besides that, it is also possible to use a purifying method which has been commonly used for the purification of protein. For example, gel filtration, ion exchange chromatography, ultrafiltration, etc. are conducted in combination thereof whereby purification is able to be done. Molecular weight of H chain or L chain of the purified humanized antibody or of the antibody molecule as a whole is able to be measured by a two-dimensional electrophoresis, etc.
The antibody produced by the method of the present invention is able to be used as a drug. Although the drug as such is able to be solely administered as a treating agent, it is usually preferred to provide as a drug preparation manufactured by mixing the drug with one or more pharmacologically acceptable carrier(s) followed by subjecting any of methods which have been known in the technical field of pharmaceutical preparations.
With regard to the administering route, it is preferred to use that which is most effective for the treatment and examples thereof include oral administration and parenteral administration such as intraoral, intra-airway, rectal, hypodermal, intramuscular or intravenous. In the case of an antibody preparation, an intravenous administration is preferably exemplified. Examples of the dosage form include spray, capsule, tablet, granules, syrup, emulsion, suppository, injection, ointment and tape etc.
Examples of the preparation suitable for oral administration include emulsion, syrup, capsule, tablet, diluted powder and granules. A liquid preparation such as emulsion or syrup is able to be prepared using an additive such as water, saccharide (e.g., sucrose, sorbitol and fructose), glycol (e.g., polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol), oil (e.g., sesame oil, olive oil and soybean oil), antiseptic (e.g., p-hydroxybenzoate) and flavor (e.g., strawberry flavor and peppermint). Capsule, tablet, diluted powder, granules, etc. are able to be prepared using an additive such as excipient (e.g., lactose, glucose, sucrose and mannitol), disintegrating agent (e.g., starch and sodium alginate), lubricant (e.g., magnesium stearate and talc), binder (e.g., polyvinyl alcohol, hydroxypropyl cellulose and gelatin), surfactant (e.g., fatty acid ester) or plasticizer (e.g., glycerol).
Examples of the preparation suitable for parenteral administration include injection, suppository and spray. Injection is able to be prepared using a carrier, etc. comprising salt solution, glucose solution or a mixture thereof. It is also possible to prepare a powdery injection preparation by subjecting the humanized antibody to freeze drying by a conventional method followed by adding sodium chloride thereto. Suppository is prepared using a carrier such as cacao butter, hydrogenated fat or carboxylic acid. Spray is prepared from said compound per se or using a carrier or the like which does not irritate the mouth and the airway viscous membrane of the person to be administered and makes said compound dispersed as fine particles so as to make its absorption easy.
Specific examples of the carrier include lactose and glycerol. Depending upon the properties of said compound and of the carrier used, it is possible to prepare a preparation such as aerosol or dry powder. It is also possible even in such parenteral preparations to add the component which is exemplified as an additive for the oral preparations.
In another embodiment, the protein produced is vaccine.
As to vaccine, the protein consisting of the amino acid sequence of epitope of pathogen is able to be used as vaccine. It is also possible to produce not only all of the constituting proteins of viral body but also envelope protein, etc. and to use it as vaccine.
Vaccine is able to be made into a preparation for the administration by any route. Examples thereof include vaccine preparation for administration of mucous membrane type such as peroral route, intranasal route, intra-airway route, vaginal route or rectal route as well as for administration by non-mucous route such as hypodermic, intravenous or intramuscular administration.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for producing an amino acid, characterized in that, the transformed cell according to the second aspect of the present invention is used. Also, according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for producing a nucleotide, characterized in that, the transformed cell according to the second aspect of the present invention is used.
Production of amino acid is able to be conducted in such a manner that, at first, a polypeptide is produced in transformed cells and said polypeptide is then hydrolyzed. It is also conducted by producing the enzyme or the like which is necessary for an in vitro synthesis of amino acid in transformed cells. Production of a nucleotide is also able to be conducted by producing the enzyme or the like which is necessary for an in vitro synthesis of nucleotide in transformed cells.
Hereinafter, Examples will be exemplified so that the effect of the present invention is made clearer.
According to the scheme shown in
After that, according to the scheme shown in
Then, drug expression cassette fragments of SV40 promoter-Pur-SV40 polyA and SV40 promoter-Pur.N4-SV40 polyA were amplified by PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 8 and 9, KOD-Plus-ver.2 (manufactured by Toyobo), and pPUR and pPUR.N4 as templates. Each of pBS-CMV-SNAPm2 and the above amplified fragments were partially digested with the restriction enzymes BamHI and SacI, respectively and connected with each other whereupon pBS-CMV-SNAPm-Pur and pBS-CMV-SNAPm-Pur.N4 were constructed (
CHO-K1 cells (Riken Bioresource Center, No. RCB0285) were adjusted to 1×105 cells/ml, each 2 ml thereof was seeded to a 12-well plate on the previous day and cultivated for one night to prepare CHO-K1 cells for transfection. At that time, a Ham's F12 medium (manufactured by Nissui Seiyaku) to which 10% of fetal bovine serum was added was used as a medium.
Transfection was carried out in such a manner that 3 μl of GeneJuice Transfection Reagent (manufactured by Merck) was diluted with 100 μl of Opti-MEM I Reduced-Serum Medium (manufactured by GIBCO), 103 μl of this diluted liquid was added to 1 μg of pBS-CMV-SNAPm-Pur or pBS-CMV-SNAPm-Pur.N4 as a plasmid followed by being allowed to stand for 10 minutes and the mixture was added to the above CHO-K1 cells followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution (manufactured by Nakarai Tesk), transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for three weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 6 μg/ml puromycin (manufactured by InvivoGen). During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture for three weeks, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and 2×105 cells per well were seeded on a 12-well plate, 2 μM SNAP-Cell-505 (manufactured by Covalys) was added to 0.5 ml of a Ham's F12 medium on the next day and cultivation was conducted for 60 minutes at 37° C. After that, the above was rinsed with the Ham's F12 medium for three times and, together with exchanging the medium, cultivation for 10 minutes was conducted for three times to remove the unreacted fluorescent dye. The cells were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse, suspended in D-PBS(−) (manufactured by Nakarai Tesk) and the expression intensity of SNAP26m was analyzed using a flow cytometer BD FACSCalibur (manufactured by Becton, Dickinson and Company).
After that, gene transfer was conducted by the same manner as in Example 2 and a selective culture was carried out for two weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 9 μg/ml puromycin. From the colonies formed thereby, 48 clones of pBS-CMV-SNAPm-Pur, and 20 clones of pBS-CMV-SNAPm-Pur.N4 were scraped using the front end of a pipette under a microscope and seeded on a 12-well plate. A labeling treatment with SNAP-Cell-505 was conducted, by the same manner as in Example 2, for 36 clones and 10 clones of the above where the growth was noted followed by conducting FACS analysis.
Then plasmids were constructed in order to investigate whether the same effect as above is also achieved when the promoter of the aimed gene expression cassette is substituted with an EF1α promoter. In this experiment, a plasmid pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-RE2 which was constructed according to the scheme shown in
This pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-RE2 was used and, in accordance with the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, the SNAP26m expression construct constructed in Example 4 was linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI (manufactured by New England Biolabs). Transfection was carried out in such a manner that 3 μl of GeneJuice Transfection Reagent was diluted with 100 μl of Opti-MEM I Reduced-Serum Medium followed by being added 1 μg of the above linearized plasmid and by being allowed to stand for 10 minutes and the mixture was added to the above CHO-K1 cells followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 5, 7.5, or 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
Plasmids were constructed for investigating whether the effect of the mRNA destabilizing factor is also available when hygromycin-resistant gene is used. In this construction, a plasmid pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg-RE2 which was constructed according to the scheme shown in
This pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-RE2 was treated with AflII and BstBI to excise the neomycin-resistant gene. On the other hand, from pTK-Hyg (manufactured by Clontech), hygromycin-resistant gene was amplified by PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 18 and 19 and transferred to the sites of the restriction enzymes AflII and BstBI of pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-RE2 to construct pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg-RE2. After that, plasmids pEF1α-SNAP26m-Hyg-RE2 and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Hyg.N4 were constructed according to the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, the SNAP26m expression construct constructed in Example 6 was linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 800 μg/ml hygromycin HygroGold (manufactured by InvivoGen). During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
In order to investigate whether the effect of the mRNA destabilizing factor is also available when the neomycin-resistant gene is used, a plasmid pEF1α-SNAP26m-Neo.N4 was constructed according to the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Neo-RE2 and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Neo.N4 were linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 1 mg/ml genetigin G418 (manufactured by Nakarai Tesk). During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
Plasmid pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N2, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N6, and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N8 were constructed according to the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, each of the SNAP26m expression constructs of pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur-RE2, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N2, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N4, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N6, and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N8 was linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 7.5 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
In a BAC library prepared from a DR 1000L-4N strain of CHO cell (CHO cell-4N strain), a clone Cg0031N14 containing an hGM-CSF expression cassette was isolated. A shotgun clone prepared from the Cg0031N14 BAC clone was subjected to 5′,3′ one-pass sequence to assemble the sequence information by Phred/Phrap/Consed whereupon the sequence of about 91 kbp of the genome sequence adjacent to the site in the CHO cells into which hGM-CSF expression cassette was transferred was determined. This sequence is shown in SEQ ID No: 26 of the Sequence Listing.
In order to check whether an insulator sequence is present in the nucleic acid sequence determined hereinabove, a search was carried out by retrieving of the binding sequence motif of an insulator-binding protein CTCF. As a tool for the analysis, the In silico CTCFBS prediction tool (http://insulatordb.utmem.edu/) (Non-Patent Document 11) was used. The motif sequences extracted by the above tool are shown in Table 1 and
From pSNAP26m-CMV constructed during the process of Example 1, CMV promoter/SNAP26m/SV 40 polyA was amplified by PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 27 and 28 and transferred into the sites of the restriction enzymes BamHI and Sad of a plasmid pBluescript II SK (−) by partial digestion to construct a plasmid pBS-CMV-SNAPm (
After that, in the clones of the shotgun library prepared in Example 11, a clone containing a CHO genome sequence near the binding sequence motifs of CTCF at the position 41820 or 45182 was extracted and a sequence derived from CHO genome (
Those SNAPm expression constructs and pPUR were linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI and mixed so as to make their ratio by weight 9:1 to prepare a mixed plasmid.
On the other hand, each 2 ml of the CHO-K1 cells adjusted to 1×105 cells/ml were seeded to a 12-well plate on the previous day and cultivated for one night to prepare CHO-K1 cells for the transfection. At that time, a Ham's F12 medium to which 10% fetal bovine serum was added was used as a medium.
Transfection was carried out in such a manner that 3 μl of GeneJuice Transfection Reagent was diluted with 100 μl of Opti-MEM I Reduced-Serum Medium, 103 μl of this diluted liquid was added to 1 μg of the above mentioned mixed plasmid followed by being allowed to stand for 10 minutes and the mixture was added to the above CHO-K1 cells followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for three weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 6 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and were seeded on a 12-well plate at 2×105 cells per well, 2 μM SNAP-Cell-505 was added to 0.5 ml of a Ham's F12 medium on the next day and cultivation was conducted for 60 minutes at 37° C. After that, the above was rinsed with the Ham's F12 medium for three times and, together with exchanging the medium, cultivation for 10 minutes was conducted for three times to remove the unreacted fluorescent dye. The cells were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse, suspended in D-PBS(−) and the expression intensity of SNAPm was analyzed using a flow cytometer BD FACSCalibur.
Based on the construct CHO5 having the highest rise of expression hereinabove, inverse PCR using KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis kit was conducted. The primers of SEQ ID Nos: 39 and 40 were used to construct CHO5Δ5 in which the positions 41601 to 42902 of the test sequences were deleted. The primers of SEQ ID Nos: 41 and 42 were used to construct CHO5ΔM in which the positions 42903 to 44200 of the test sequences were deleted. The primers of SEQ ID Nos: 43 and 44 were used to construct CHO5Δ3 in which the positions 44201 to 46746 of the test sequences were deleted (
Those SNAPm expression constructs and pPUR were linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI and mixed so as to make their ratio by weight 9:1 to prepare a mixed plasmid.
The above mixed plasmid (1 μg) was transfected to CHO-K1 cells which were seeded on a 12-well plate on the previous day followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA Solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for three weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 6 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and were seeded on a 12-well plate at 2×105 cells per well, 2 μM SNAP-Cell-505 was added to 0.5 ml of a Ham's F12 medium on the next day and cultivation was conducted for 60 minutes at 37° C. After that, the above was rinsed with the Ham's F12 medium for three times and, together with exchanging the medium, cultivation for 10 minutes was conducted for three times to remove the unreacted fluorescent dye. The cells were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse, suspended in D-PBS (−) and the expression intensity of SNAPm was analyzed using a flow cytometer BD FACSCalibur.
The primers of SEQ ID Nos: 44 to 49 were used and inverse PCR using the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit was carried out to construct an SNAPm expression construct where 3′ of the test sequence of CHO5Δ3 was further deleted (
Those SNAP26m expression constructs were subjected to the same treatment as in Example 14 to analyze the expression intensity of the SNAPm.
In
In order to investigate the effect of combination of N4 sequence with CHO5Δ3-3 which was noted of its gene expression stabilizing ability in Example 15 for the puromycin-resistant gene, a plasmid was constructed. In this experiment, the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k/1.1k mentioned in
On the other hand, the plasmids pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N4 and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur-RE2 constructed in Example 4 were used as a template and inverse PCR using the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit was carried out using the primers of SEQ ID Nos. 54 and 55 to construct plasmids pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur2.N4 and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur2-RE2 wherein the restriction enzyme BsiWI site existing in the puromycin-resistant gene was deleted.
After that, plasmids pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k, and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur-1.1k/1.1k were constructed according to the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, the SNAP26m expression constructs constructed in Example 4 and 16 were linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 5, 7.5, or 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
In order to investigate the effect of combination of N4 sequence with CHO5Δ3-3 which was noted of its gene expression stabilizing ability in Example 15 for the hygromycin-resistant gene, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Hyg.N4-1.1k/1.1k and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Hyg-1.1k/1.1k were constructed according to the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, the SNAP26m expression constructs constructed in Example 6 and 18 were linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 800 μg/ml HygroGold. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
In order to investigate the effect of combination of N4 sequence with CHO5Δ3-3 which was noted of its gene expression stabilizing ability in Example 15 for the neomycin-resistant gene, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Neo.N4-1.1k/1.1k and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Neo-1.1k/1.1k were constructed according to the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, the SNAP26m expression constructs constructed in Example 8 and 20 were linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 1 mg/ml geneticin G418. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
Plasmids pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N2-1.1k/1.1k, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N6-1.1k/1.1k, and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N8-1.1k/1.1k were constructed according to the scheme shown in
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, each SNAP26m expression constructs of pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur-1.1k/1.1k, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N2-1.1k/1.1k, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N6-1.1k/1.1k, and pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N8-1.1k/1.1k was linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for a week in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
In order to investigate the joint use of the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) with the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 which was recognized for its gene expression stabilizing effect in Example 15 in the antibody production system, pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Neo.N4-1.1k/1.1k was constructed according to the scheme shown in
Thus, pEF1α-SNAP26m-Neo.N4-1.1k/1.1k mentioned in Example 20 was treated with restriction enzymes EcoRI and NotI to excise the SNAP26m gene. On the other hand, heavy chain gene of anti-KOD antibody was prepared from pEF1α-KOD3G8HC mentioned in Example 4 by PCR amplification using primers of SEQ ID Nos: 56 and 57 followed by treating with the restriction enzymes EcoRI and NotI, and this heavy chain gene was transferred into the sites of EcoRI and NotI of pEF1α-SNAP26m-Neo.N4-1.1k/1.1k to construct pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Neo.N4-1.1k/1.1k.
In order to investigate the joint effect of the N4 sequence with the CHO5Δ3-3 which was recognized of its gene expression stabilizing ability in Example 15 in the antibody production system, pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg-1.1k/1.1k was constructed according to the scheme shown in
In order to investigate the joint effect of the N4 sequence with the CHO5Δ3-3 which was recognized of its gene expression stabilizing ability in Example 15 in the antibody production system, pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg.N4-1.1k/1.1k was constructed according to the scheme shown in
In order to investigate the joint effect of the N4 sequence with the CHO5Δ3-3 which was recognized of its gene expression stabilizing ability in Example 15 in the antibody production system, pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k was constructed according to the scheme shown in
Each of the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-RE2 (hereinafter, it will be referred to as −/Neo), the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Neo), the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Neo.N4-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Neo.N4) and the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Pur.N4), which are heavy chain (HC) expression constructs of the anti-KOD antibody, as well as the pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg-RE2 (hereinafter, it will be referred to as −/Hyg), the pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Hyg), and the pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg.N4-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Hyg.N4), which are light chain (LC) expression constructs of the anti-KOD antibody was linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Then the heavy chain and light chain expression constructs were mixed for each of the followings so as to make the ratio by weight of the heavy chain expression construct of the antibody to the light chain expression construct of the antibody 1:1 whereupon a mixed plasmid was prepared:
(1) that where no gene expression stabilizing element was contained therein (−/Neo and −/Hyg);
(2) that where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the antibody expression cassette (1.1k/Neo and 1.1k/Hyg);
(3) that where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the antibody expression cassette and the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (heavy chain: Neo; light chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Neo.N4 and 1.1k/Hyg.N4); and
(4) that where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the antibody expression cassette and the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (heavy chain: Pur; light chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4 and 1.1k/Hyg.N4).
The above mixed plasmid (2 μg) was transfected to the CHO-K1 cells which were seeded on a 6-well plate on the previous day and cultivated for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for two weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS as well as geneticin G418 and HygroGold, or puromycin and HygroGold. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. For the case where no gene expression stabilizing element was contained therein (−/Neo, −/Hyg) and for the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the antibody expression cassette (1.1k/Neo, 1.1k/Hyg), a selective culture was carried out using 600 μg/ml of geneticin G418 and 400 μg/ml of HygroGold. For the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette and mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (H chain: Neo; L chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Neo.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4), a selective culture was carried out using 400 μg/ml of geneticin G418 and 200 μg/ml of HygroGold. For the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette and mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (heavy chain: Pur; light chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4), a selective culture was carried out using 7.5 μg/ml of puromycin and 400 μg/ml of HygroGold. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA Solution and were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of KOD3G8 antibody in the polyclone was measured by means of ELISA (where DNA polymerase derived from Pyrococcus kodakaraensis KOD1 was made into a solid phase).
To be more specific, the supernatant of the culture was added to ELISA plate where DNA polymerase derived from KOD1 was made into a solid phase in a concentration of 30 μg/ml and cultivated at 35° C. for two hours. After that, it was washed with PBS-T (a phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.1% of Tween 20), 50 μl of anti-mouse antibody-HRP (manufactured by DAKO) diluted to an extent of 10,000 times was added followed by cultivating at 35° C. for one hour and it was further washed with PBS-T for three times and the mixture was made to react with TMB+ (3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine; manufactured by DAKO) for 5 minutes. After ceasing the reaction by addition of 50 μl of 1N sulfuric acid, its absorbance was measured using a plate reader (product name; SPECTRA CLASSIC, manufactured by TECAN Auctria) (main wavelength: 450 nm; subsidiary wavelength: 620 nm).
Concentration of the antibody was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from a standard substance. As to the standard substance, an antibody obtained from mouse hybridoma cell line 3G8 (deposition number: FERM BP-6056; available from the International Patent Organism Depositary, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) which produces an antibody being specific to DNA polymerase derived from KOD1 was used. The result is shown in
After that, concerning each of the case containing no gene expression stabilizing element (−/Neo, −/Hyg), the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette (1.1k/Neo, 1.1k/Hyg), the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette and the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (H chain: Neo; L chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Neo.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4), and the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette and the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (H chain: Pur; L chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4), cell group generated after the selection was subjected to a limiting dilution and the productivity in monoclone was compared.
To be more specific, polyclone cells of Example 27 which stably expressed the KOD3G8 antibody were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse the cells followed by sowing on a 96-well plate in a concentration of 0.75 cell/well. After cultivating for two weeks, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of the KOD3G8 antibody was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27. Antibody production amount of each clone was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The clone showing the high expression amount in each of the case where no gene expression stabilizing element was contained (−/Neo, −/Hyg), the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette (1.1k/Neo, 1.1k/Hyg), the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette and the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (H chain: Neo; L chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Neo.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4), and the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette and the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (H chain: Pur; L chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4) was subjected to an expansive culture. After that, cells were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of KOD3G8 antibody in monoclone was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27.
In order to further confirm the effect, the production amount of the KOD3G8 antibody calculated by the ELISA measurement after the above cultivation in the 96-well plate for two weeks was analyzed once again for the case where neither gene expression stabilizing element nor mRNA destabilizing sequence was contained (−/Neo, −/Hyg) and for the case where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was contained and mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was further added to the drug-resistant gene (H chain: Pur; L chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4) and the result was plotted in terms of frequency distribution. The result is shown in
CHO-K1 cells were subjected to a serum-free adaptation using a EX-CELL CD CHO Serum-Free Medium for CHO Cells, chemically defined (manufactured by SAFC Biosciences) according to the protocol attached thereto. The serum-free adapted CHO-K1 cells were suspended in a Opti-MEM I Reduced-Serum Medium (manufactured by GIBCO) in a concentration of 2.5×105 cell/ml and then each 1 ml of the suspension was seeded per four wells on a 24-well plate of a ultra-low attachment surface (manufactured by Corning Incorporated).
Each of the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Neo) and the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Pur.N4) which are heavy chain (HC) expression constructs of the anti-KOD antibody, as well as the pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Hyg) and the pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-Hyg.N4-1.1k/1.1k (hereinafter, it will be referred to as 1.1k/Hyg.N4) which are light chain (LC) expression constructs of the anti-KOD antibody was linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Then the heavy chain and light chain expression constructs were mixed for each of the followings so as to make the ratio by weight of the heavy chain expression construct of the antibody to the light chain expression construct of the antibody 1:1 whereupon a mixed plasmid was prepared:
(1) that where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the antibody expression cassette (1.1k/Neo and 1.1k/Hyg); and
(2) that where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the antibody expression cassette and the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (heavy chain: Pur; light chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4 and 1.1k/Hyg.N4).
Each 4 μl of the above mixed plasmid was diluted with 68 μl of the Opti-MEM I Reduced-Serum Medium. On the other hand, 15 μl of lipofectamine 2000 was diluted with 68 μl of the Opti-MEM I Reduced-Serum Medium, mixed with the above plasmid mixed solution and allowed to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. After that, each half volume thereof was added to the cells in 2 wells.
On the next day, the cells were recovered, centrifuged at 800 g for 3 minutes to remove the supernatant and suspended in 4 ml of EX-CELL CD CHO Serum-Free Medium for CHO Cells, chemically defined. For the thing where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette (1.1k/Neo, 1.1k/Hyg), antibiotics comprising 400 μg/ml of G418 and 200 μg/ml of HygroGold were added thereto while, for the thing where the gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette and mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to the drug-resistant gene (H chain: Pur; L chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4, 1.1k/Hyg.N4), antibiotics comprising 7.5 μg/ml of puromycin and 200 μg/ml of HygroGold were added followed by subjecting to a selective culture.
After finishing the selective culture, cells were seeded on a 6-well plate at 4×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of the KOD3G8 antibody in polyclone was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27.
After that, in order to check whether highly productive cells are able to be procured even when the H chain expression cassette and the L chain expression cassette are aligned on one vector, pEF1α-KOD3G8LC,HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k was constructed according to a scheme shown in
Incidentally, when the H chain (heavy chain) expression cassette and the L chain (light chain) expression cassette are aligned on different vectors, that is called “2-construct antibody expression system” or simply “2-contract” while, when the H chain expression cassette and the L chain expression cassette are aligned on one vector, that is called “single vector antibody expression system” or simply “single vector”.
Firstly, pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k-S where a restriction enzyme site for insertion of the L chain expression cassette was inserted into pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k was constructed. Thus, pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k mentioned in Example 26 was treated with the restriction enzymes BglII and MluI to excise an EF-1α promoter. On the other hand, the EF-1α promoter was prepared from pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k constructed during the process of Example 16 by PCR amplification using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 58 and 59 followed by treating with BglII and MluI, and this promoter was transferred into the sites of BglII and MluI of pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k to construct pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k-S where BglII, SphI and SpeI sites were inserted into the upstream region of the EF-1α promoter.
After that, pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k-S was treated with BglII and SpeI. On the other hand, the L chain expression cassette of anti-KOD antibody was prepared from pEF1α-KOD3G8LC-RE2 constructed during the process of Example 6 by PCR amplification using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 60 and 61 followed by treating with BglII and SpeI, and this expression cassette was transferred into BglII and SpeI sites of pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k-S to construct a single vector pEF1α-KOD3G8LC,HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k.
Investigation was conducted in order to check whether a clone having a high antibody production amount is able to be obtained in the single vector antibody expression system the same as in the case of the 2-construct antibody expression system. As a 2-construct antibody expression system, the vectors in which a gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the antibody expression cassette and mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) was added to a drug-resistant gene (heavy chain: Pur, light chain: Hyg) (1.1k/Pur.N4 and 1.1k/Hyg.N4), for which the best result was achieved in Examples 27 and 28, were used. Then, a plasmid (already linearized with the restriction enzyme AhdI) where a heavy chain expression construct of the antibody and a light chain expression construct of the antibody were mixed to make their ratio by weight 1:1 was used for the transfection. Further, as a single vector antibody expression system, pEF1α-KOD3G8LC,HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k constructed in Example 30 was linearized by a restriction enzyme AhdI and used for the transfection. Each plasmid (2 μg) was transfected to the CHO-K1 cells prepared by the method of Example 2 followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed using 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for two weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 7.5 μg/ml puromycin and 400 μg/ml of HygroGold in the case of a 2-construct expression system while, in the case of a single vector system, in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every 3 to 4 days. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the produced amount of KOD3G8 antibody in the polyclone was measured by ELISA according to the same method as in Example 27.
Antibody concentration was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The result is shown in
After that, concerning each of the 2-construct antibody expression system and the single vector antibody expression system, cell group generated after the selection was subjected to a limiting dilution and the productivity in monoclone was compared.
To be more specific, polyclone cells of Example 31 which stably expressed the KOD3G8 antibody were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse the cells followed by sowing on a 96-well plate in a concentration of 0.75 cell/well. After cultivating for two weeks, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of the KOD3G8 antibody was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27. Antibody production amount of each clone was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The clones showing the high expression amount in each of the 2-construct antibody expression system and the single vector antibody expression system were selected. After the selected clones were subjected to an expansive culture, cells were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of KOD3G8 antibody in monoclone was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27.
After that, a restriction enzyme recognition sequence was deleted from a gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3. Firstly, there was constructed pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE where the restriction enzyme Sad site existing in CHO5Δ-3-3 was deleted by inverse PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 62 and 63, the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit and pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k mentioned in Example 16 as a template. Next, there was constructed pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE2 where the restriction enzyme SmaI site existing in CHO5Δ3-3 was deleted by inverse PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 64 and 65, the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit and pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE as a template. Moreover, there was constructed pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE3 where the restriction enzyme BamHI site existing in CHO5Δ3-3 was deleted by inverse PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 66 and 67, the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit and pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE2 as a template. Finally, there was constructed pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE4 where the restriction enzyme HindIII site existing in CHO5Δ3-3 was deleted by inverse PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 68 and 69, the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit and pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE3 as a template.
There was constructed pEHX mentioned in
After that, in order to confirm the effect of deletion of the restriction enzyme sites from the element, SNAP26m gene was inserted into the multiple cloning site of pEHX. To be more specific, SNAP26m gene was amplified using pSNAPm as a template and a primer set of SEQ ID Nos: 3 and 20, and was inserted into the MluI and NotI sites of pEHX to construct pEH (M-SNAP26m-N). Similarly, SNAP26m gene was amplified using pSNAPm as a template and a primer set of SEQ ID Nos: 3 and 87, and was inserted into the BsiWI and NotI sites of pEHX to construct pEH (B-SNAP26m-N).
CHO-K1 cells for a transfection was prepared by the method mentioned in Example 2. On the other hand, the SNAP26m expression construct pEF1α-SNAP26m-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k constructed in Example 16 and the SNAP26m expression constructs constructed in Example 35 were linearized using a restriction enzyme AhdI. Transfection was carried out by the method mentioned in Example 5, and on the next day of the transfection, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for two weeks in Ham's F12 mediums supplemented with 10% FBS and 7.5 or 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every three to four days. After finishing the selective culture, the expression intensity of SNAP26m of the cell group was analyzed using the method mentioned in the Example 2.
There was constructed pELX mentioned in
Then, in order to confirm the effect by deletion of the restriction enzyme sites from the element in the anti-KOD antibody expression system, pELH (KOD3G8) was constructed.
Firstly, each of the heavy chain gene and the light chain gene of the anti-KOD antibody was inserted into the sites of the restriction enzymes MluI and NotI of pEHX and pELX to construct pEH (KOD3G8) and pEL (KOD3G8). To be more specific, the heavy chain gene of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared from pEF1α-KOD3G8HC mentioned in Example 4 by PCR amplification using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 56 and 57 followed by treating with the restriction enzymes MluI and NotI, and this gene was transferred into the sites of the restriction enzyme MluI and NotI of pEHX to construct pEH (KOD3G8). Similarly, the light chain gene of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared from pEF1α-KOD3G8LC mentioned in Example 6 by PCR amplification using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 56 and 57 followed by treating with the restriction enzymes MluI and NotI, and this gene was transferred into the sites of the restriction enzyme MluI and NotI of pELX to construct pEL (KOD3G8).
Then a light chain expression cassette of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared by treating the pEL (KOD3G8) with BglII, SpeI and ScaI according to the scheme shown in
The effect by deletion of the restriction enzyme recognition sequence in CHO5Δ3-3 was investigated in the anti-KOD antibody expression system. The pEF1α-KOD3G8LC, HC-Pur.N4-1.1k/1.1k (1.1k) constructed in Example 30 was used as a single vector for expression of anti-KOD antibody where the gene expression stabilizing sequence CHO5Δ3-3 wherefrom no restriction enzyme recognition sequence was deleted was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette. Further, the pELH (KOD3G8) (1.1k-ΔRE) constructed in Example 38 was used as a single vector for expression of anti-KOD antibody wherein CHO5Δ3-3 wherefrom four restriction enzyme recognition sequences were deleted was inserted into both of the upstream and downstream regions of expression cassette. Each plasmid (2 μg) linearized with the restriction enzyme AhdI was transfected to the CHO-K1 cells prepared by the method of Example 2 followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed using 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for two weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every 3 to 4 days. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the produced amount of KOD3G8 antibody in the polyclone was measured by ELISA according to the same method as in Example 27.
Antibody concentration was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The result is shown in
After that, concerning each of the cases where the restriction enzyme recognition sequence in CHO5Δ3-3 was not/was deleted, cell group generated after the selection was subjected to a limiting dilution and the productivity in monoclone was compared.
To be more specific, polyclone cells of Example 39 which stably expressed the KOD3G8 antibody were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse the cells followed by sowing on a 96-well plate in a concentration of 0.75 cell/well. After cultivating for two weeks, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of the KOD3G8 antibody was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27. Antibody production amount of each clone was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The clone showing the high expression amount in each of the cases where the restriction enzyme recognition sequence in CHO5Δ3-3 was not/was deleted was selected. After the selected clone was subjected to an expansive culture, cells were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of KOD3G8 antibody in monoclone was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27.
The effect by alignment of three or more gene expression stabilizing elements was tested. To be more specific, the effect by further insertion of gene expression stabilizing element between the two gene expression cassettes for the aimed protein in the expression vector where gene expression stabilizing element was aligned to the upstream and downstream regions of two gene expression cassettes for aimed protein and a drug selective marker gene expression cassette was tested by the following methods.
pELX2 shown by
After that, pELH2 (KOD3G8) was constructed in order to confirm the effect by insertion of CHO5Δ3-3 between the L chain expression cassette and the H chain expression cassette.
Firstly, the light chain gene of the anti-KOD antibody was inserted into the sites of the restriction enzymes MluI and NotI of pELX2 to construct pEL2 (KOD3G8). To be more specific, the light chain gene of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared from pEF1α-KOD3G8LC mentioned in Example 6 by PCR amplification using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 56 and 57 followed by treating with the restriction enzymes MluI and NotI, and this gene was transferred into the sites of the restriction enzymes MluI and NotI of pELX2 to construct pEL2 (KOD3G8).
Then a light chain expression cassette of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared by treating the pEL2 (KOD3G8) with BglII, SpeI and ScaI according to the scheme shown in
The effect by insertion of CHO5Δ3-3 between the L chain expression cassette and the H chain expression cassette in the anti-KOD antibody expression system was investigated during the stage of polyclone. The pELH2 (KOD3G8) constructed in Example 42 was used as a single vector for the anti-KOD antibody expression containing CHO5Δ3-3 between the L chain expression cassette and the H chain expression cassette. Further, as a comparative example, the pELH (KOD3G8) constructed in Example 38 was used as a single vector for the anti-KOD antibody expression containing no CHO5Δ3-3 between the L chain expression cassette and the H chain expression cassette. Each plasmid (2 μg) linearized with the restriction enzyme AhdI was transfected to the CHO-K1 cells prepared by the method of Example 2 followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed using 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for two weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10%. FBS and 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every 3 to 4 days. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the produced amount of KOD3G8 antibody in the polyclone was measured by ELISA according to the same method as in Example 27.
Antibody concentration was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The result is shown in
After that, limiting dilution was conducted for each of the cell group transformed by an expression vector (pELH2 (KOD3G8)) having CHO5Δ3-3 between the L chain expression cassette and the H chain expression cassette, and the cell group transformed by an expression vector (pELH (KOD3G8)) having no CHO5Δ3-3 between the L chain expression cassette and the H chain expression cassette as a comparative example, and comparison in terms of productivity was carried out in monoclone.
To be more specific, polyclone cells of Example 43 which stably expressed the KOD3G8 antibody were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse the cells followed by sowing on a 96-well plate in a concentration of 0.75 cell/well. After cultivating for two weeks, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of the KOD3G8 antibody was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27. Antibody production amount of each clone was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The clone showing the high expression amount in each of the cases where CHO5Δ3-3 is/is not contained between the L chain expression cassette and the H chain expression cassette was selected. After the selected clone was subjected to an expansive culture, cells were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of KOD3G8 antibody in monoclone was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27.
In accordance with the scheme shown in
In accordance with the scheme shown in
The effect of the concatemerized expression vector was investigated in the anti-KOD antibody expression system. The pELH3 (KOD3G8) constructed in Example 45 and the pELH4 (KOD3G8) constructed in Example 46 were used as the concatemerzied expression vectors. Further, the pELH (KOD3G8) coding for each one copy of the H chain and the L chain expression cassettes of the anti-KOD antibody and Puromycin-resistant gene expression cassette constructed in Example 38 were used as the comparative example. Each plasmid (2 μg) linearized with the restriction enzyme AhdI was transfected to the CHO-K1 cells prepared by the method of Example 2 followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed using 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for two weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every 3 to 4 days. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the produced amount of KOD3G8 antibody in the polyclone was measured by ELISA according to the same method as in Example 27.
Similar to Example 27, antibody concentration was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The result is shown in
Then, concerning the cells of polyclone procured by gene transfer in each of the expression vector pELH (KOD3G8), pELH3 (KOD3G8) and pELH4 (KOD3G8), cell group generated after the selection was subjected to a limiting dilution and productivity in monoclone was compared.
To be more specific, polyclone cells of Example 47 which stably expressed the KOD3G8 antibody were treated with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution to disperse the cells followed by sowing on a 96-well plate in a concentration of 0.75 cell/well. After cultivating for two weeks, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of the KOD3G8 antibody was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27. Antibody production amount of each clone was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The clone showing the high expression amount was selected for each of the cases transferred by the pELH (KOD3G8), pELH3 (KOD3G8) and pELH4 (KOD3G8) respectively. After the selected clone was subjected to an expansive culture, cells were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the production amount of KOD3G8 antibody in monoclone was measured by ELISA according to the same manner as in Example 27.
An expression vector containing the gene of the constant region of the light chain and/or the heavy chain of the antibody was prepared and the gene of variable region of the antibody was inserted into the expression vector to express the antibody molecule whereby the effect of the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) and the gene expression stabilizing element (CHO5Δ3-3) was confirmed.
From the CHO5Δ3-3 wherefrom four restriction enzyme recognition sequences were deleted as constructed in Example 33, the restriction enzyme BlpI sites which were present in two places were further deleted. To be more specific, firstly, there was constructed pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE5 where one restriction enzyme BipI site existing in CHO5Δ3-3 was deleted by inverse PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 94 and 95, the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit, and the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE4 constructed in Example 33 as a template. After that, there was constructed pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE6 where another restriction enzyme BipI site existing in CHO5Δ3-3 was deleted by inverse PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 96 and 97, the KOD-Plus-Mutagenesis Kit, and the pEF1α-KOD3G8HC-1.1k-ΔRE5 as a template.
Total RNA was extracted from human peripheral blood monocytes recovered from blood of healthy human treated with heparin using Sepasol RNAI Super (manufactured by Nakarai Tesk). Then, cDNA was synthesized by ReverTra Ace-α- (manufactured by Toyobo) using the total RNA as a template. After that, human 71 constant region gene was amplified by PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 98 and 99 and the purified PCR product was subjected to a TA cloning to pTA vector (manufactured by Toyobo). Sequence of the constructed plasmid was confirmed by means of sequencing and the clone having the same sequence as the known sequence was named pTA-γ1.
A gene expression stabilizing element CHO5Δ3-3 wherefrom six restriction enzyme recognition sequences were deleted was aligned in the upstream and downstream regions of the expression cassette to construct pEHγX mentioned in
Total RNA was extracted from human peripheral blood monocytes recovered from blood of healthy human treated with heparin using Sepasol RNAI Super (manufactured by Nakarai Tesk). Then, cDNA was synthesized by ReverTra Ace-α- (manufactured by Toyobo) using the total RNA as a template. After that, human κ constant region gene was amplified by PCR using the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 108 and 109 and the purified PCR product was subjected to a TA cloning to pTA vector. Sequence of the constructed plasmid was confirmed by means of sequencing and the clone having the same sequence as the known sequence was named pTA-κ.
There was constructed pELκX mentioned in
After that pELκHγ (KOD3G8) was constructed in order to confirm the effect of N4 sequence and CHO5Δ3-3 in a mouse-human chimera antibody expression system utilizing the variable region gene of the anti-KOD antibody.
Firstly, a heavy chain variable region gene of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared by PCR amplification using pEH (KOD3G8) mentioned in Example 38 as a template and the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 56 and 120 followed by treating with the restriction enzymes HindIII and NheI, and this gene was inserted into the sites of the restriction enzymes HindIII and NheI of pEHγX constructed in Example 51 to prepare pEHγ(KOD3G8).
After that, a light chain variable region gene of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared by PCR amplification using pEL (KOD3G8) mentioned in Example 38 as a template and the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 56 and 121 followed by treating with the restriction enzymes MluI and BsiWI, and this gene was inserted into the sites of the restriction enzymes MluI and BsiWI of pELκX constructed in Example 53 to prepare pELκ (KOD3G8).
Then a light chain expression cassette of the mouse-human chimera antibody was prepared by treating the pELκ (KOD3G8) with BglII, NotI and ScaI according to the scheme shown in
Then pcHγX mentioned in
After that, in order to confirm the effect of the mRNA destabilizing sequence (N4 sequence) and the gene expression stabilizing element (CHO5Δ3-3), pcLκHγ (KOD3G8) where the mRNA destabilizing sequence and the gene expression stabilizing element were deleted in the mouse-human chimera antibody expression system utilizing the variable region gene of the anti-KOD antibody was constructed as a control.
Firstly, a heavy chain variable region gene of the anti-KOD antibody was prepared by PCR amplification using pEH (KOD3G8) mentioned in Example 38 as a template and the primers of SEQ ID Nos: 56 and 120 followed by treating with the restriction enzymes HindIII and NheI, and this gene was inserted into the sites of the restriction enzymes HindIII and NheI of pcHγX constructed in Example 55 to prepare pcHγ (KOD3G8).
Then a light chain expression cassette of the mouse-human chimera antibody was prepared by treating the pELκ (KOD3G8) constructed in Example 54 with BglII, NotI and ScaI according to the scheme shown in
The effect of N4 sequence and CHO5Δ3-3 was investigated in the mouse-human chimera antibody expression system utilizing the variable region gene of the anti-KOD antibody. As a construct containing the N4 sequence and the CHO5Δ3-3, pELκHγ (KOD3G8) constructed in Example 54 was used while, as a construct containing no N4 sequence and CHO5Δ3-3, the pcLκHγ (KOD3G8) constructed in Example 56 was used. Each plasmid (2 linearized with the restriction enzyme AhdI was transfected to the CHO-K1 cells prepared by the method of Example 2 followed by cultivating for 24 hours. On the next day, the medium was removed and the cells were dispersed using 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution, transferred to a 90-mm Petri dish and subjected to a selective culture for two weeks in a Ham's F12 medium supplemented with 10% FBS and 10 μg/ml puromycin. During the selective culture, the medium was exchanged every 3 to 4 days. After finishing the selective culture, the cells were dispersed by treating with 2.5 g/l-trypsin and 1 mmol/l-EDTA solution and were seeded on a 6-well plate at 1.84×105 cells per well. After cultivating for three days, the supernatant of the culture was recovered and the produced amount of KOD3G8 antibody in the polyclone was measured by ELISA according to the same method as in Example 27.
Antibody concentration was calculated on the basis of a calibration curve prepared from the standard substance. The result is shown in
By using an expression vector of the present invention which is equipped with the nucleic acid region having a stabilizing function of gene expression and the weakened drug gene expression cassette, the cell which highly expresses the aimed protein gene is able to be obtained efficiently. Accordingly, the expression system in mammalian cells using the expression vector of the present invention greatly contributes not only in the function analysis of protein of various animal cells or, particularly, mammalian cells but also in the industries of drug discovery and medical service as biopharmaceuticals.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-136512 | Jun 2009 | JP | national |
| 2009-146703 | Jun 2009 | JP | national |
| 2009-297963 | Dec 2009 | JP | national |
| 2010-023321 | Feb 2010 | JP | national |
| 2010-027317 | Feb 2010 | JP | national |
| 2010-098246 | Apr 2010 | JP | national |
| 2010-098247 | Apr 2010 | JP | national |
| 2010-126179 | Jun 2010 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2010/003759 | 6/4/2010 | WO | 00 | 3/31/2011 |
