Production of Recombinant Monoclonal Antibodies in the Egg White of Gene-Targeted Transgenic Chickens

Takehiro Mukae, Sho Okumura, Takuma Watanobe, Kyoko Yoshii, Takahiro Tagami, Isao Oishi
2020 Genes  
Increased commercial demand for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has resulted in the urgent need to establish efficient production systems. We previously developed a transgenic chicken bioreactor system that effectively produced human cytokines in egg whites using genome-edited transgenic chickens. Here, we describe the application of this system to mAb production. The genes encoding the heavy and light chains of humanized anti-HER2 mAb, linked by a 2A peptide sequence, were integrated into the
more » ... ken ovalbumin gene locus using a CRISPR/Cas9 protocol. The knock-in hens produced a fully assembled humanized mAb in their eggs. The mAb expression level in the egg white was 1.4–1.9 mg/mL, as determined by ELISA. Furthermore, the antigen binding affinity of the anti-HER2 mAb obtained was estimated to be equal to that of the therapeutic anti-HER2 mAb (trastuzumab). In addition, antigen-specific binding by the egg white mAb was demonstrated by immunofluorescence against HER2-positive and -negative cells. These results indicate that the chicken bioreactor system can efficiently produce mAbs with antigen binding capacity and can serve as an alternative production system for commercial mAbs.
doi:10.3390/genes12010038 pmid:33396657 fatcat:5rc37vz5draovkcakaxj4hlymu