Cell Line Development; Plays an Important Role in Drug Discovery/Development Process

 

Cell Line Development

Cell line development is a clinical diagnostic technique used to examine the efficiency of drug discovery and toxicity. It is essential for recombinant protein production, such as bi-specific monoclonal antibodies, monoclonal antibodies, growth factors, and enzymes using a variety of expression systems. Cell line development can be used for in vitro testing and helps reduce the chances of drug failure in the clinical trial stage. Cell line development has reached new frontiers due to considerable genomic research and development activities.

Cell lines have revolutionized scientific research and are being widely used in the creation of artificial tissues (e.g., artificial skin), a study of gene function, antibody production, testing drug metabolism and cytotoxicity, vaccine production, and synthesis of biological compounds e.g., therapeutic proteins. Cell line development is a major step for examining the efficiency of drug discovery, toxicity, and in vitro testing. It minimizes time, cost, and effort, which reduces the likelihood of research drugs failing in the clinical trial phase.

Cell line development requires the discovery of single cell-derived clones that produce high and consistent levels of the target therapeutic protein. Cell lines are usually clonal, meaning that the entire population originated from a single common ancestor cell. Clonal cell lines are derived from the mitotic division of a single cell seeded in a sterile microtiter plate by limiting dilution, as used in the cloning of hybridoma cell lines. The development of immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer is the major application of cell line development.

Thus, with the increasing prevalence of cancer across the globe, the demand for cell line or cell line development is also increasing at a rapid pace. For example, according to the American Cancer Society, in 2021, there will be an estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed and 608,570 cancer deaths in the United States. Cell lines derived from cancer cells are frequently used in cancer research to study the biology of cancer and to test cancer treatments, which in turn helps to speed up the drug discovery process.