Biopharmaceuticals are products extracted from biological sources and manufactured using biotechnological methods, including antibodies, cytokines, hormones, growth factors, vaccines, and peptides. Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells are the preferred mammalian cell line in biopharmaceutical production.
Advantages of CHO Cells
CHO cells are favored for several reasons. They can produce human-like proteins with complex post-translational modifications (PTMs), ensuring the biological functionality of therapeutic proteins. They can achieve gram-per-liter levels of recombinant protein production and demonstrate robust resistance to variations in oxygen levels, temperature, pressure, or pH during production. CHO cells can also be cultured in suspension and chemically defined, serum-free media, facilitating large-scale and reproducible manufacturing. Their resistance to human viruses enhances biosafety during production.
Genetic Engineering of CHO Cells
Owing to these benefits, the biopharmaceutical industry has been using CHO cells extensively for decades, building a thorough genetic toolkit and regulatory knowledge in the process. This context has prompted attempts to enhance the synthesis of biopharmaceuticals by genetically modifying CHO cells. The CRISPR-Cas system represents a major breakthrough in this sector. CRISPR technology has a number of benefits over conventional genome editing instruments like Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs) and Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs), including cost-effectiveness, programmability, ease of use, and increased efficiency.
