Improvement of a fermentation process for the production of two PfAMA1-DiCo-based malaria vaccine candidates in Pichia pastoris

Sci Rep. 2017 Sep 20;7(1):11991. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-11819-4.

Abstract

Pichia pastoris is a simple and powerful expression platform that has the ability to produce a wide variety of recombinant proteins, ranging from simple peptides to complex membrane proteins. A well-established fermentation strategy is available comprising three main phases: a batch phase, followed by a glycerol fed-batch phase that increases cell density, and finally an induction phase for product expression using methanol as the inducer. We previously used this three-phase strategy at the 15-L scale to express three different AMA1-DiCo-based malaria vaccine candidates to develop a vaccine cocktail. For two candidates, we switched to a two-phase strategy lacking the intermediate glycerol fed-batch phase. The new strategy not only provided a more convenient process flow but also achieved 1.5-fold and 2.5-fold higher space-time yields for the two candidates, respectively, and simultaneously reduced the final cell mass by a factor of 1.3, thus simplifying solid-liquid separation. This strategy also reduced the quantity of host cell proteins that remained to be separated from the two vaccine candidates (by 34% and 13%, respectively), thus reducing the effort required in the subsequent purification steps. Taken together, our new fermentation strategy increased the overall fermentation performance for the production of two different AMA1-DiCo-based vaccine candidates.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antigens, Protozoan / genetics
  • Antigens, Protozoan / metabolism*
  • Biotechnology / methods*
  • Fermentation
  • Malaria Vaccines / genetics
  • Malaria Vaccines / metabolism*
  • Membrane Proteins / genetics
  • Membrane Proteins / metabolism*
  • Pichia / genetics
  • Pichia / metabolism*
  • Protozoan Proteins / genetics
  • Protozoan Proteins / metabolism*
  • Technology, Pharmaceutical / methods*
  • Vaccines, Synthetic / genetics
  • Vaccines, Synthetic / metabolism

Substances

  • Antigens, Protozoan
  • Malaria Vaccines
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Protozoan Proteins
  • Vaccines, Synthetic
  • apical membrane antigen I, Plasmodium