Cited by 321Glycosylation and Glycoproteins ResearchViral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in InsectsTransgenic Plants and Applications

Production platforms for biotherapeutic glycoproteins. Occurrence impact, and challenges of non-human sialylation

Open access
Ghaderi, Darius, Zhang, Mai, Hurtado-Ziola, Nancy, Varki, Ajit·2012·Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews

Abstract

One of the fastest growing fields in the pharmaceutical industry is the market for therapeutic glycoproteins. Today, these molecules play a major role in the treatment of various diseases, and include several protein classes, i.e., clotting factors, hormones, cytokines, antisera, enzymes, enzyme inhibitors, Ig-Fc-Fusion proteins, and monoclonal antibodies. Optimal glycosylation is critical for therapeutic glycoproteins, as glycans can influence their yield, immunogenicity and efficacy, which impact the costs and success of such treatments. While several mammalian cell expression systems currently used can produce therapeutic glycoproteins that are mostly decorated with human-like glycans, they can differ from human glycans by presenting two structures at the terminal and therefore most exposed position. First, natural human N-glycans are lacking the terminal Gal 1-3Gal (alpha-Gal) modification; and second, they do not contain the non-human sialic acid N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc). All humans spontaneously express antibodies against both of these glycan structures, risking increased immunogenicity of biotherapeutics carrying such non-human glycan epitopes. However, in striking contrast to the alpha-Gal epitope, exogenous Neu5Gc can be metabolically incorporated into human cells and presented on expressed glycoproteins in several possible epitopes. Recent work has demonstrated that this non-human sialic acid is found in widely varying amounts on biotherapeutic glycoproteins approved for treatment of various medical conditions. Neu5Gc on glycans of these medical agents likely originates from the production process involving the non-human mammalian cell lines and/or the addition of animal-derived tissue culture supplements. Further studies are needed to fully understand the impact of Neu5Gc in biotherapeutic agents. Similar concerns apply to human cells prepared for allo- or auto-transplantation, that have been grown in animal-derived tissue culture supplements.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.5661/bger-28-147

Cites

129 of 129 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Plants produce core α1,3-fructose and β1,2-xylose, which are completely absent in human cells and could be immunogenic.

    “Indeed, plants produce core α1,3-fructose and β1,2-xylose, which are completely absent in human cells and could be immunogenic (Karg et al., 2009;Ghaderi et al., 2012).”

    From Therapeutic glycoprotein production in mammalian cells (2017) · cites this paper as Ghaderi et al., 2012

    The plant-based expression systems section says plant N-glycans may carry β1,2-xylose and α1,3-fucose residues that are absent in humans and may be immunogenic. The claim says “fructose” rather than the paper’s “fucose,” so that component is not supported as written. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. MALYKH, YN, SCHAUER, R,SHAW, L (2001), 'N-Glycolylneuraminic Acid in Human Tumours.', Biochimie, 83 (7), 623-34.
  2. STANLEY, P, H SCHACHTER,N TANIGUCHI (2009), 'N-Glycans', in VARKI, A, RD CUMMINGS, JD ESKO, HH FREEZE, P STANLEY, CR BERTOZZI, GW HART,ME ETZLER (eds.), Essentials of Glycobiology (2nd edn., Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press), 101-14.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Ghaderi, D., Zhang, M., Hurtado-Ziola, N., & Varki, A.
Affiliations
University of California San Diego (US)
Corresponding author
Varki, Ajit
Venue
Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews
Published
2012-01
Volume
28
Issue
1
Pages
147-176
ISSN
  • 0264-8725 (ISSN-L)
  • 2046-5556
OpenAlex
W1997984454
Cited by
320
References
128
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 3
FWCI
10.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Glycosylation and Glycoproteins Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Viral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in Insects
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Transgenic Plants and Applications
Keywords
N-glycolylneuraminic acid, alpha-gal epitope, therapeutic glycoproteins, biologic therapy, N-glycosylation, immunogenicity, sialic acid, monoclonal antibodies
MeSH terms
Animals, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Epitopes, Biotechnology, Carbohydrate Sequence, Cattle, Cells, Cultured, Culture Media, Disaccharides, Glycoproteins, Glycosylation, Cricetinae, Humans, Insecta, Rabbits, Recombinant Proteins, Sialic Acids, Swine, Cell Culture Techniques, Mice

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review