Question

Why would a company use mammalian cell culture to produce heterologous protein (such as monoclonal antibodies) when it is so much more expensive than basic fermentation of bacteria or yeast?

Answer 1

Antibody fragments are the most important biopharmaceutical products in todays time. Mammalian cell culture is used to produce heterologous proteins like monoclonal antibodies because monoclonal antibodies also written as mAbs are glycosylated. And as humans are mammals, in case of mammalian cells they allow human like N-glycosylation.

Glycosylation is a reaction in which carbohydrates , also called glycosyl donor gets attached to a hydroxyl or other functional group of another molecule which is a glycosyl acceptor. Glycosylation is an important process of determining secondary structures of protein. Any changes or alteration can lead to the changes in the process of recruiting and activating signalling proteins. EG. G Proteins.

Antibody fragments which  are not glycosylated and exhibit antigen binding properties, can be produced in microbial organisms, as micorbial cultures are easy to manipulate and cultivate.

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