Abstract
Recently, there has been a growing demand for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) on the global market. Because therapeutic MAbs are more expensive than low-molecular-weight drugs, there have been strong demands to lower their production costs. Therefore, efficient methods to minimize the cost of goods are currently active areas of research. We have screened several enhancers of specific MAb production rate (SPR) using a YB2/0 cell line and found that coenzyme-Q10 (CoQ10) is a promising enhancer candidate. CoQ10 is well known as a strong antioxidant in the respiratory chain and is used for healthcare and other applications. Because CoQ10 is negligibly water soluble, most studies are limited by low concentrations. We added CoQ10 to a culture medium as dispersed nanoparticles at several concentrations (Q-Media) and conducted a fed-batch culture. Although the Q-Media had no effect on cumulative viable cell density, it enhanced SPR by 29%. In addition, the Q-Media had no effect on the binding or cytotoxic activity of MAbs. Q-Media also enhanced SPR with CHO and NS0 cell lines by 30%. These observations suggest that CoQ10 serves as a powerful aid in the production of MAbs by enhancing SPR without changing the characteristics of cell growth, or adversely affecting the quality or biological activity of MAbs.
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Abbreviations
- MAbs:
-
Monoclonal antibodies
- CoQ10 :
-
Coenzyme-Q10
- Q-Media:
-
Culture media supplemented with dispersed nanoparticles of Q10
- 8OHdG:
-
8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine
- SPR:
-
Specific MAb production rate (pg cell−1 d−1)
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. Kazuyasu Nakamura, Ms. Masako Wakitani, and Mr. Noriyuki Takahashi for their expert analysis, and Mr. Hiroshi Takasugi, Dr. Kazuhisa Uchida, Dr. Jun Yamaya, and Dr. Mitsuo Sato for helpful discussions and encouragement.
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Konno, Y., Aoki, M., Takagishi, M. et al. Enhancement of antibody production by the addition of Coenzyme-Q10 . Cytotechnology 63, 163–170 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-010-9330-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-010-9330-9