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Development of a qualitative real‐time PCR for microbiological quality control testing in mammalian cell culture production
Author(s) -
Kleinschmidt K.,
Wilkens E.,
Glaeser S.P.,
Kaempfer P.,
Staerk A.,
Roesti D.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1111/jam.13387
Subject(s) - biology , real time polymerase chain reaction , production (economics) , quality (philosophy) , microbiological culture , microbiology and biotechnology , computational biology , bacteria , genetics , gene , philosophy , epistemology , economics , macroeconomics
Aims The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a real‐time PCR technology for microbiological control methods to examine individualized cell therapeutics, an emerging class of pharmaceutical formulations. Methods and Results Oligonucleotide primers and hybridization probe for bacterial detection targeting the 16S rRNA gene were adapted based on Nadkarni et al . [ Microbiology 148 (2002) 257]. For detection of yeast and moulds, primers and probe were designed from conserved sequences of the 18S rRNA gene in this study. The real‐time PCR assays were tested on genomic DNA of Escherichia coli and Candida albicans to assess efficiency and linear dynamic range. After successful establishment of robust real‐time PCR s, applicability of the assays was evaluated by extracting microbial target DNA from cell‐based preparations. Different commercial DNA extraction methods were compared identifying the Mag NA Pure DNA Isolation Kit III as the method of choice. Sensitivity was examined for different strains and a detection limit of 10 2 –10 3 CFU per ml in a sample containing ~10 6 mammalian cells per ml was achieved. Conclusions This study reports the successful establishment of two qualitative real‐time PCR assays, enabling in general the broad‐range detection of microbial contaminants in a cell‐based sample matrix. Significance and Impact of the Study Individualized cell therapeutics tend to have a short shelf life. Due to lengthy incubation periods, compendial testing according to current pharmacopoeial guidelines may not be applicable. We report a suitable alternative method upon which future microbiological quality control methods for such products could be based on. However, to implement valid rapid microbiological testing methods using real‐time PCR technology, further challenges need to be addressed.