Insulin study poster
Exploring the effects of insulin on viral vectors production in HEK293 cells
Enhancing viral vector yield with Insulin supplementation
Viral vectors are indispensable in biotechnology, research, and pharmaceutical settings. The use of viral vehicles has advanced vaccine development, gene therapy, and cell therapy. However, many of these applications require large quantities of viral vectors that can be difficult to obtain. For instance, approximately 1013 – 1014 vg/kg of adenovirus-associated virus (AAV) are required for a relatively high dose gene therapy, translating to high cost of goods and difficulties to scale-up the production process.
Improving production efficiency can enhance the scalability of vector production for commercial and research purposes while reducing costs and saving time. To this end, it is crucial to optimize cell culture conditions. Chemically defined media for viral vector production typically requires the addition of multiple supplements at optimized concentrations. These reagents can significantly impact the quantity and quality of viral vectors produced.
Recombinant insulin is one such reagent that has been shown to improve cell culture quality and stability across different applications. Accordingly, we conducted a study to determine the efficacy of viral vector production in the presence of recombinant insulin supplemented to chemically defined media. We evaluated the effect of a range of insulin concentrations added at different time points on the production of AAV and LV in HEK293 cells. Supplementation of the media with insulin 2 hours prior to transfection significantly boosted viral vector production by up to 47% for AAV and up to 110% for LV.
Supplementation of cell culture media with high-quality insulin can, therefore, support large-scale production of viral vectors. This can reduce time and production costs, in addition to ensuring the consistency and high yield required for therapeutic applications. Since insulin concentrations can vary across different protocols for the production of different types of viral vectors, the use of pre-mixed media prevents the optimization of cell culture conditions at the level of individual components.
For a detailed breakdown of the study design and results, download the poster below and discover how this simple addition can help streamline your viral vector production workflows
