24-Aug-2020 | Market Research Store
Researchers from University of California San Diego have moved ahead developed heparin in cultured cells. This protein is an anti-coagulant that is most commonly prescribed drugs in hospitals. However, it is for the first time cell-culture-based production of heparin is being tried out. The team was successful in finding the zinc-finger protein 263 (ZNF263) gene that plays a vital role in heparin biosynthesis and is on the way to use this gene regulator to discover the means for industrial heparin production. With the help of genetic engineering, the researchers plan to control this regulator in the industrial cell lines and open new door for safe industrial production of heparin in a monitored cell-culture.
Presently, the protein is extracted from the pig intestines and this raises question over its safety and sustainability. Additionally, millions of pigs are required to meet the needs of heparin production. Thus, this is the major cause behind the need for developing a sustainable recombinant production. The entire control over the synthesis of heparin by the cells is the new insight. The subtype of heparin named heparan sulfatesis produced by number of cells present in humans and cell culture. However, it is majorly produced in the mast cells. Even after knowing all this, producing heparin in the cell culture has been a failure. Enticingly, the researchers believe that transcription factors to be controlling heparin synthesis. A bioinformatic software has helped encode enzymes involved in synthesis and also to identify specific sequence elementsof the binding sites in transcription factors.
It is during the software run that the researchers found a transcription factor called ZNF263. It is the first key regulator involved in the synthesis of heparin. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, the researchers mutated this transcription factor in human cell lines and this regulator chemically alteredheparan sulfate produced by the cell line such that heparin was produced. ZNF263 is an active repressor of heparin biosynthesis throughout most cell types but it is completely opposite in the mast cells. Researchers hope to use CHO cells to produce heparin on the industrial scale. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysishas helped researchers find more potential gene regulators that contribute to heparin production.
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