Rapid establishment of CHO cell lines producing the anti-hepatocyte growth factor antibody SFN68

Anti-hepatocyte growth factor (anti-HGF) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are potential therapeutics against various cancers. Screening for high-producer clones is a time-consuming and complex process and is a major hurdle in the development of therapeutic mAbs. Here, we describe an efficient approach that allows the selection of high-producer Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines producing the novel anti-HGF mAb SFN68, which was generated previously by immunizing HGF bound to its receptor c-Met. We selected an SFN68-producing parental cell line via transfection of the dihydrofolate reductase-deficient CHO cell line DG44, which was preadapted to serum-free suspension culture, with an SFN68-expression vector. Subsequent gene amplification via multiple passages of the parental cell line in a methotrexate-containing medium over 4 weeks, followed by clonal isolation, enabled us to isolate two cell lines, 2F7 and 2H4, with 3-fold higher specific productivity. We also screened 72 different media formulated with diverse feed and basal media to develop a suboptimized medium. In the established suboptimized medium, the highest anti-HGF mAb yields of the 2F7 and 2H4 clones were 842 and 861 mg/l, respectively, which were about 10.5-fold higher than that of the parental cell line in a non-optimized basal medium. The selected CHO cell lines secreting high titers of SFN68 would be useful for the production of sufficient amounts of antibodies for efficacy evaluation in preclinical and early clinical studies.