Components of yeast (Sacchromyces cervisiae) extract as defined media additives that support the growth and productivity of CHO cells

Yeast and plant hydrolysates are used as media supplements to support the growth and productivity of CHO cultures for biopharmaceutical production. Through fractionation of a yeast lysate and metabolic analysis of a fraction that had bioactivity equivalent to commercial yeast extract (YE), bioactive components were identified that promoted growth and productivity of two recombinant CHO cell lines (CHO-Luc and CHO-hFcEG2) equivalent to or greater than YE-supplemented media. Autolysis of the yeast lysate was not necessary for full activity, suggesting that the active components are present in untreated yeast cells. A bioactive fraction (3KF) of the yeast lysate was isolated from the permeate using a 3 kDa molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) filter. Supplementation of this 3KF fraction into the base media supported growth of CHO-Luc cells over eight passages equivalent to YE-supplemented media. The 3KF fraction was fractionated further by a cation exchange spin column using a stepwise pH elution. Metabolomic analysis of a bioactive fraction isolated at high pH identified several arginine and lysine-containing peptides as well as two polyamines, spermine and spermidine, with 3.5× and 4.5× higher levels compared to a fraction showing no bioactivity. The addition of a mixture of polyamines and their precursors (putrescine, spermine, spermidine, ornithine and citrulline) as well as increasing the concentration of some of the components of the original base medium resulted in a chemically-defined (CD) formulation that produced an equivalent viable cell density (VCD) and productivity of the CHO-Luc cells as the YE-supplemented medium. The VCD of the CHO-hFcEG2 culture in the CD medium was 1.9× greater and with equivalent productivity to the YE-supplemented media.