基于位点特异性整合评价CHO细胞表达系统启动子活性的研究

Evaluation of the Promoter Activity of the CHO Cell Expression System Based on Site-specific Integration

工业生产上中国仓鼠卵巢细胞(CHO)药物蛋白质的表达水平受多种因素影响:调控元件对转录翻译的影响、基因组整合位点的影响以及表达系统的影响等。转录作为基因表达第一步,较大程度影响蛋白质的表达,其中启动子在转录起始发挥至关重要的作用。启动子筛选大部分通过瞬时转染或随机整合,但存在拷贝数不明确或整合位点随机等而无法准确评价启动子活性。位点特异性整合在一定程度上降低位置效应对外源基因造成的影响,并有可能提高外源基因的表达水平。本课题组前期在CHO细胞基因组中发现并验证了多个可稳定表达外源蛋白质的位点,本研究选择其中1个位点(2c6)用于启动子活性的评价。采用CRISPR/Cas9基因编辑技术分别将猿猴病毒早期启动子(SV40)、小鼠延伸因子-1α(mEF-1α)、鸡β-肌动蛋白(cACTB)启动子和人磷酸甘油酸激酶启动子(hPGK)调控的报告基因(EGFP)表达盒定点整合至2c6位点上。通过流式分选仪分析细胞平均荧光强度,qPCR检测EGFP的mRNA水平,综合评价启动子的活性。结果表明,mEF-1α和cACTB启动子的活性优于SV40和hPGK。2次流式分选结果表明,位点特异性整合可以更为精确评价CHO细胞表达系统启动子活性。

In industrial production,the expression level of drug proteins in Chinese hamster ovary cells(CHO)is influenced by many factors:the regulatory elements on transcription and translation,the genomic integration sites,and the expression system.Transcription,as the first step of gene expression,largely affects protein expression,and the promoter plays a crucial role in the initiation of transcription.Most of the promoters were screened through transient transfection or random integration,but the presence of unclear copy number or random integration sites makes it difficult to accurately evaluate the promoter activity.To some extent,site-specific integration can reduce the impact of positional effects on exogenous genes and may potentially increase the expression level of exogenous genes.In the early stage of our research,multiple sites that can stably express exogenous proteins were identified and verified in the CHO cell genome.In this study,one of these sites(2c6)was selected for the evaluation of promoter activity.The CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technique was used to site-specifically integrate the reporter gene(EGFP)regulated by the simian virus early promoter(SV40),mouse elongation factor-1α(mEF-1α),chicken β-actin(cACTB)promoter,and human phosphoglycerate kinase promoter(hPGK)into the 2c6 site,respectively.The mean fluorescence intensity of the cells was analyzed by flow cytometry,and the mRNA level of EGFP was detected by qPCR to comprehensively evaluate the activity of the promoter.The results showed that the activities of the mEF-1α and mACTB promoters were better than those of SV40 and hPGK.The results of the secondary flow cytometry sorting showed that site-specific integration can more accurately evaluate the activity of the promoter in the CHO cell expression system.