A mathematical model of N-linked glycoform biosynthesis

Metabolic engineering of N-linked oligosaccharide biosynthesis to produce novel glycoforms or glycoform distributions of a recombinant glycoprotein can potentially lead to an improved therapeutic performance of the glycoprotein product. Effective engineering of this pathway to maximize the fractions of beneficial glycoforms within the glycoform population of a target glycoprotein can be aided by a mathematical model of the N-linked glycosylation process. A mathematical model is presented here, whose main function is to calculate the expected qualitative trends in the N-linked oligosaccharide distribution resulting from changes in the levels of one or more enzymes involved in the network of enzyme-catalyzed reactions that accomplish N-linked oligosaccharide biosynthesis. It consists of mass balances for 33 different oligosaccharide species N-linked to a specified protein that is being transported through the different compartments of the Golgi complex. Values of the model parameters describing Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were estimated from literature information. A basal set of kinetic parameters for the enzyme-catalyzed reactions acting on free oligosaccharide substrates was also obtained from the literature. The solution of the system for this basal set of parameters gave a glycoform distribution consisting mainly of complex-galactosylated oligosaccharides distributed in structures with different numbers of antennae in a fashion similar to that observed for various recombinant proteins produced in CHO cells. Other simulations indicate that changes in the oligosaccharide distribution could easily result from alteration in glycoprotein productivity within the range currently attainable in industry. The overexpression of N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase III in CHO cells was simulated under different conditions to test the main function of the model. These simulations allow a comparison of different strategies, such as simultaneous overexpression of several enzymes or spatial relocation of enzymes, when trying to optimize a particular glycoform distribution.