title: Humanization of lepidopteran insect-cell-produced glycoproteins.
abstract: The insect cell-baculovirus expression vector system, widely used for glycoprotein production, is not ideal for pharmaceutical glycoprotein production due to the characteristics of the N-glycans in the expressed products. Insect cells lack several enzymes required for mammalian-type N-glycan synthesis and contain a specific N-acetylglucosaminidase that stunts the growth of chains and a core alpha-1,3-fucosyltransferase that yields potentially allergenic glycoforms. Current knowledge on N-glycan processing in lepidopteran insect cells is summarized, and strategies to develop better glycoprotein expression systems suitable for pharmaceutical glycoprotein production are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. ntomiya1@jhu.edu
authors.forename: Noboru
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tomiya
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Betenbaugh
authors.forename: Yuan C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016367:Baculoviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism*; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D006023:Glycoproteins; D011134:Polysaccharides