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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / APPLIED BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Cost-effective production of a vaginal protein microbicide to prevent HIV transmission
*Departament de Producció Vegetal i Ciència Forestal, Universitat de Lleida, Avenida Alcalde Rovira Roure, 191, Lleida, 25198, Spain; Institute for Molecular Biotechnology, Biology VII, RWTH Aachen, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany; Department of Chemistry, Glycobiology Division, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria; Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 118 55 Athens, Greece; ¶Polymun Scientific, Nussdorfer Laende 11, 1190 Vienna, Austria; ||Saint George's University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, United Kingdom; and **Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
Communicated by M. S. Swaminathan, Taramani Institutional Area, Madras, India, September 22, 2007 (received for review July 24, 2007)
A series of small-molecule microbicides has been developed for vaginal delivery to prevent heterosexual HIV transmission, but results from human clinical trials have been disappointing. Protein-based microbicides, such as HIV-specific monoclonal antibodies, have been considered as an alternative approach. Despite their promising safety profile and efficacy, the major drawback of such molecules is the economy of large-scale production in mammalian cells, the current system of choice. Here, we show that an alternative biomanufacturing platform is now available for one of the most promising anti-HIV antibodies (2G12). Our data show that the HIV-neutralization capability of the antibody is equal to or superior to that of the same antibody produced in CHO cells. We conclude that this protein production system may provide a means to achieve microbicide ingredient manufacture at costs that would allow product introduction and manufacture in the developing world.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0708841104/DC1.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: christou{at}pvcf.udl.cat
© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
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