How to Eliminate a Mycoplasma Contamination?

Mycoplasmas are one of the most persistent and dangerous contaminants in cell culture laboratories and the biopharmaceutical industry. Due to their small size and lack of a cell wall they often go undetected by routine light microscopy. Yet, their impact is severe – altering cell metabolism and gene expression, inhibiting growth, reducing transduction efficiency. In biopharmaceutical production, mycoplasma contamination can compromise product quality, regulatory approval, and ultimately patient safety.

Prevention is Better than Cure!

Unlike bacterial or fungal contaminants, mycoplasmas integrate themselves stealthily into cultures, influencing experimental outcomes without obvious signs. This makes their detection and, most importantly, their prevention a critical priority.
Discover key strategies and best practices to tackle mycoplasma contamination before they enter your cell culture and learn how to detect mycoplasma contamination.

While regularly testing for mycoplasma is standard in many research and biopharmaceutical settings, removing them effectively is a greater challenge. Unchecked contamination can lead to:

• Loss of valuable and irreplaceable cell lines that may have taken years to establish.
• Disruption of experimental reproducibility and reliability.
• Regulatory non-compliance in manufacturing processes for biopharmaceuticals.
• Financial and time losses in production due to contaminated batches.

Once a contaminated cell culture has been identified, the safest course of action is to dispose of it. If disposal is not an option, reliable tools for efficient mycoplasma removal are essential. Minerva Biolabs offers specialized solutions to address this challenge head-on.

Mynox® – Proven Rescue for Contaminated Cultures

Mynox® is a well-established elimination reagent designed to remove mycoplasma from infected cell cultures in just a few days.

The formulation of Mynox® avoids the use of antibiotics and instead uses surfactin, a cyclic lipopeptide, which prevents the formation of resistant strains.

The mode of action is based on a biophysical mechanism to integrate selectively into the membrane of mycoplasmas while compromising their integrity. This results in an osmotic influx, which leads to the complete disintegration of the mycoplasma membrane.

A side effect of Mynox® is that during killing the contaminated cells, many of the eukaryotic cells are also affected. The treatment approach of Mynox® is based on rescuing a few cells, while those affected by the contaminants are specifically killed. By selectively eliminating contaminated cells, the culture can be restarted using only healthy cells, resuming their native morphology and normal proliferation rates. This results in a cell culture free of any contaminants.

Electron microscope image showing the effects of Mynox® when applied to contaminated cell cultures. (A) Mycoplasma contaminated cell culture before treatment. (B) With one application of Mynox®, membranes of all mycoplasma are destroyed while the tissue cell membrane is unaffected. Black arrows indicate mycoplasmas, white arrows indicate parts of a tissue cell.

Mynox® offers a sustainable solution for the efficient and permanent elimination of mycoplasmas and acholeplasmas in cell cultures, viral suspensions and other biological agents. It has become a trusted tool in laboratories worldwide for rescuing valuable cell lines and avoiding the need to discard months or years of work.

Mynox® Gold – The Next Generation of Elimination

Mynox® Gold is a further development of the classic Mynox®.

Mynox® Gold is a combination of a standard antibiotic ciprofloxacin with the biological component surfactin, a mycoplasma elimination reagent. It is recommended for sensible and/or primary cells.

The combination of the standard antibiotic ciprofloxacin and the Mynox® reagent surfactin virtually eliminates the possibility of resistance to Mynox® Gold when eliminating mycoplasmas.

It is estimated that about 15 - 30 % of the world's continuous cell lines are contaminated with mycoplasma ^[1].

Features

• Highly effective: Eradicates mycoplasma with > 90 % success rate.
• Universal: works on all types of permanent cell lines as well as primary and stem cells.
• Virus Stocks: applicable to both enveloped and non-enveloped virus stocks.
• Without antibiotics (Mynox® only): biophysical mode of action prevents resistance risk.
• Fast: Mynox® eliminates mycoplasma within one cell culture passage or medium change (e.g. 6 day incubation). The treatment with Mynox® Gold requires 4 passages.

Eliminating Mycoplasma contamination is essential for rescuing valuable cell lines. With trusted reagents such as Mynox® and Mynox® Gold from Minerva Biolabs, laboratories can restore contaminated cultures and save months or years of work.

Equally important is verifying the success of mycoplasma elimination: using a mycoplasma detection kit after treatment ensures that contamination is truly resolved.

^[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0003683824604943