Current influenza vaccines are trivalent or quadrivalent inactivated split or subunit vaccines administered intramuscularly, or live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV) adapted to replicate at temperatures below body temperature and administered intranasally. Both vaccines are considered safe and efficient, but due to differences in specific properties may complement each other to ensure reliable vaccine coverage. By now, licensed LAIV are produced in embryonated chicken eggs. In the near future influenza vaccines for human use will also be available from adherent MDCK or Vero cell cultures, but a scalable suspension process may facilitate production and supply with vaccines.

Vaccines are complex products that are manufactured in highly dynamic processes. Cellular substrates are one critical component that can have an enormous impact on reactogenicity of the final preparation, level of attenuation of a live virus, yield of infectious units or antigens, and cost per vaccine dose. Such parameters contribute to feasibility and affordability of vaccine programs both in industrialized countries and developing regions. This review summarizes the diversity of cellular substrates for propagation of viral vaccines from primary tissue explants and embryonated chicken eggs to designed continuous cell lines of human and avian origin.

While vectored vaccines, based on hyperattenuated viruses, may lead to new treatment options against infectious diseases and certain cancers, they are also complex products and sometimes difficult to provide in sufficient amount and purity. To facilitate vaccine programs utilizing host-restricted poxviruses, we established avian suspension cell lines (CR and CR.pIX) and developed a robust, chemically defined, culturing process for production of this class of vectors. For one prominent member, modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA), we now describe a new strain that appears to replicate to greater yields of infectious units, especially in the cell-free supernatant of cultures in chemically defined media. The new strain was obtained by repeated passaging in CR suspension cultures and, consistent with reports on the exceptional genetic stability of MVA, sequencing of 135 kb of the viral genomic DNA revealed that only three structural proteins (A3L, A9L and A34R) each carry a single amino acid exchange (H639Y, K75E and D86Y, respectively). Host restriction in a plaque-purified isolate of the new genotype appears to be maintained in cell culture. Processing towards an injectable vaccine preparation may be simplified with this strain as a complete lysate, containing the main burden of host cell contaminants, may not be required anymore to obtain adequate yields.

Oxidation of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can impact their efficacy and may therefore represent critical quality attributes (CQA) that require evaluation. To complement classical CQA, bevacizumab and infliximab were subjected to oxidative stress by H₂O₂ for 24, 48, or 72 h to probe their oxidation susceptibility. For investigation, a middle-up approach was used utilizing liquid chromatography hyphenated with mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS). In both mAbs, the Fc/2 subunit was completely oxidized. Additional oxidations were found in the light chain (LC) and in the Fd’ subunit of infliximab, but not in bevacizumab. By direct comparison of methionine positions, the oxidized residues in infliximab were assigned to M55 in LC and M18 in Fd’. The forced oxidation approach was further exploited for comparison of respective biosimilar products. Both for bevacizumab and infliximab, comparison of posttranslational modification profiles demonstrated high similarity of the unstressed reference product (RP) and the biosimilar (BS). However, for bevacizumab, comparison after forced oxidation revealed a higher susceptibility of the BS compared to the RP. It may thus be considered a useful tool for biopharmaceutical engineering, biosimilarity assessment, as well as for quality control of protein drugs.

Fruit bats and insectivorous bats are believed to provide a natural reservoir for a wide variety of infectious diseases. Several lines of evidence, including the successful isolation of infectious viruses, indicate that Marburg virus and Ravn virus have found a major reservoir in colonies of the Egyptian rousette (Rousettus aegyptiacus). To facilitate molecular studies on virus-reservoir host interactions and isolation of viruses from environmental samples, we established cell lines from primary cells of this animal. The cell lines were given to several laboratories until we realized that a contamination with Vero cells in one of the cultures had occurred. Here we describe a general diagnostic procedure for identification of cross-species contamination with the focus on Vero and Rousettus cell lines, and summarize newly discovered properties of the cell lines that may pertain to pathogen discovery.