Mammalian cell production and purification of progenipoietin, a dual-agonist chimaeric haematopoietic growth factor.

One member of the progenipoietin (ProGP) family of engineered proteins, ProGP-2, is a chimaeric dual cytokine receptor agonist, expressed in mammalian cells, that stimulates both human fetal liver tyrosine kinase-3 (Flt3) and the granulocyte-colony-stimulating-factor (G-CSF) receptor. The production of ProGP-2 on a small and large scale using either anti-(Flt3 ligand) antibody-affinity chromatography, or a combination of (NH4)2SO4 fractionation, anion-exchange chromatography, hydrophobic-interaction chromatography and preparative reverse-phase chromatography is described. ProGP-2 was produced in hollow-fibre reactors containing stably transfected NS0 cells.