Glycoengineering of HEK293 cells to produce high-mannose-type N-glycan structures

Therapeutic proteins are a developing part of the modern biopharmaceutical industry, providing novel therapies to intractable diseases including cancers and autoimmune diseases. The human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cell line has been widely used to produce recombinant proteins in both basic science and industry. The heterogeneity of glycan structures is one of the most challenging issues in the production of therapeutic proteins. Previously, we knocked out genes encoding alpha 1,2-mannosidase-Is, MAN1A1, MAN1A2 and MAN1B1, in HEK293 cells, establishing a triple-knockout (T-KO) cell line, which produced recombinant protein with mainly high-mannose-type N-glycans. Here, we further knocked out MAN1C1 and MGAT1 encoding another Golgi alpha 1,2-mannosidase-I and N-acetylglucosaminyl-transferase-I, respectively, based on the T-KO cells. Two recombinant proteins, lysosomal acid lipase (LIPA) and immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1), were expressed in the quadruple-KO (QD-KO) and quintuple-KO (QT-KO) cell lines. Glycan structural analysis revealed that all the hybrid-type and complex-type N-glycans were eliminated, and only the high-mannose-type N-glycans were detected among the recombinant proteins prepared from the QD-KO and QT-KO cells. Overexpression of the oncogenes MYC and MYCN recovered the slow growth in QD-KO and QT-KO without changing the glycan structures. Our results suggest that these cell lines could be suitable platforms to produce homogeneous therapeutic proteins.