Production of yellow fever VLPs by perfusion cultivation of stable
recombinant HEK293 cells
Abstract
Yellow fever (YF) is a life-threatening viral disease endemic in large
areas of Africa and Latin America. Although there is a very efficacious
vaccine since the 1930s, YF still causes 29,000-60,000 annual deaths.
During recent YF outbreaks there were issues of vaccine shortage due to
limited supply of the current egg-derived vaccine; rare but fatal
vaccine adverse effects occurred; and cases were imported to Asia, where
the mosquito vector circulates and where local transmission could
potentially start. In this work, we investigated the production of YF
virus-like particles (VLPs) using suspension-adapted stably-transfected
HEK293 cells. In order to develop an intensified process, we combined
two strategies: the use of sequential FACS rounds to enrich the stable
cell pool in terms of high producers, and the use of perfusion
processes. At first, shaken tube experiments revealed that FACS
enrichment of the cell pool allowed doubling VLP production, and that in
pseudoperfusion cultures (with daily medium exchange) lasting 14 days
VLP production increased by 8.3 fold as compared to batch cultures
lasting 11 days. When true perfusion cultures were carried out in
bioreactors, the use of an inclined cell settler as cell retention
device showed operational advantages as compared to an ATF system.