Novel Hexosamine Reagents for Improved Quality Recombinant Glycoprotein Production

Unmet Need: Glycosylation has a major impact on recombinant glycoproteins with important implications for increasing therapeutic use of these compounds. Various approaches are being developed to afford scientists and engineers more control over the type, location, and amount of sugar added to the protein. One technique involves adding sugar reagents to a tissue culture media to stimulate flux through a desired sugar modification pathway. While promising in theory, to date, sugar-based agents have been limited because they are either poorly transported across the lipid membrane or else cause toxicity in the cell.
 
Technical Details: Inventors at Johns Hopkins University have developed a flexible hexosamine analog that is both efficient and non-toxic. Preliminary results suggest being able to increase global sialyation (one potential beneficial modification) at nearly 5-fold greater than the state of the art. The potential uses for this reagent are widespread ranging from global stimulation of any of the three naturally-occurring hexosamine pathways, to applications involving unnatural modifications such as click chemistry, to next generation antiviral therapy approaches.

Patent Status: Pending US Application US-2015-0191761

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