Transient co-expression for fast and high-yield production of antibodies with human-like N -glycans in plants

Louis-Philippe Vézina (1) , Loic Faye (2) , Patrice Lerouge (3) , Marc-André d'Aoust (1) , Estelle Marquet-Blouin (2) , Carole Burel (3) , Pierre-Olivier Lavoie (1) , Muriel Bardor (3) , Veronique Gomord (2)

1 Medicago Inc.
2 GTCV - Glycobiologie et transports chez les végétaux
3 Glyco-MEV - Laboratoire de Glycobiologie et Matrice Extracellulaire Végétale

Plant-based transient expression is potentially the most rapid and cost-efficient system for the production of recombinant pharmaceutical proteins, but safety concerns associated with plant-specific N-glycosylation have hampered its adoption as a commercial production system. In this article, we describe an approach based on the simultaneous transient co-expression of an antibody, a suppressor of silencing and a chimaeric human β 1,4-galactosyltransferase targeted for optimal activity to the early secretory pathway in agroinfiltrated Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. This strategy allows fast and high-yield production of antibodies with human-like N-glycans and, more generally, provides solutions to many critical problems posed by the large-scale production of therapeutic and vaccinal proteins, specifically yield, volume and quality.

Mots clés: yield; glycoengineering; transient expression; antibody; N-glycosylation; plant

Domaines: Botanique; Amélioration des plantes; Génomique, Transcriptomique et Protéomique [q-bio.GN]; Biotechnologies

Louis-Philippe Vézina, Loic Faye, Patrice Lerouge, Marc-André d'Aoust, Estelle Marquet-Blouin, et al.. Transient co-expression for fast and high-yield production of antibodies with human-like N -glycans in plants. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 2009, 7 (5), pp.442-455. ⟨10.1111/j.1467-7652.2009.00414.x⟩. ⟨hal-02128727⟩