Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are widely used to produce recombinant proteins as therapeutics for a variety of diseases. These proteins often contain carbohydrates that are critical for therapeutic efficacy. Now Krummen and colleagues have engineered CHO cells that overexpress two enzymes responsible for adding N-linked oligosaccharides. Therapeutic IgGs produced in these cells had more complete carbohydrate modifications and persisted longer in an animal model system (see p. 1116).
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DeWitt, N. Therapeutic proteins get a sugar coating. Nat Biotechnol 17, 1051 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/15024
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/15024