Impact of dual baculovirus infection on the Sf9 insect cell
transcriptome during AAV production using single-cell RNA-seq
Abstract
The insect cell-baculovirus expression vector system (IC-BEVS) has shown
to be a powerful platform to produce complex biopharmaceutical products,
such as recombinant proteins and VLPs. More recently IC-BEVS has been
also used as an alternative to produce adeno-associated virus (AAV).
However, little is known about the variability of insect cell
populations and the potential effect of heterogeneity on product titer
and/or quality. In this study, transcriptomics analysis of Sf9 insect
cells during the production of recombinant AAV using a low multiplicity
of infection, dual-baculovirus system was performed via
single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq). Before infection, the principal source
of variability in Sf9 insect cells was associated to cell cycle. Over
the course of infection, an increase in transcriptional heterogeneity
was detected, this being linked to the expression of baculovirus genes
as well as to differences in AAV transgenes ( rep, cap and
gfp) expression. Noteworthy, at 24 hours post-infection (hpi)
only 29 % of cells showed to enclose all three necessary AAV transgenes
to produce packed AAV particles, indicating limitations of the dual
baculovirus system. In addition, the trajectory analysis herein
performed highlighted biological processes such as protein folding,
metabolic processes, translation and stress response has been
significantly altered upon infection. Overall, this work reports the
first application of scRNA-seq to the IC-BEVS and highlights significant
variations in individual cells within the population, providing insight
for rational cell and process engineering towards improved AAV
production in IC-BEVS.