New agar microspheres for the separation and purification of natural products

A new type of agar chromatography media has been prepared with a yield over 80% using a water‐in‐oil emulsion technique. These microspheres have regular spherical shapes and particle diameters in the range 40–165 μm (average ～90 μm). Cross‐linking of the resulting agar microspheres with epichlorohydrin and 1,4‐butanediol diglycidyl ether enhanced their mechanical and thermal stability. The alkaline conditions used during the cross‐linking reaction also decreased the content of ionized sulfate groups of the polysaccharide, thus reducing the nonspecific adsorption of positively charged molecules. The cross‐linked agar microspheres were functionalized with (i) branched poly(ethyleneimine) to obtain a stationary phase useful for the separation of proteins in an anion‐exchange mode and (ii) with poly‐β‐cyclodextrin enabling direct isolation and purification of puerarin from a crude extract of Radix puerariae. Using a 23.5 mL column loaded with 20 mg extract (0.85 mg/mL gel), puerarin with a purity of 96% was recovered with a yield of 86%.     

Production of milligram quantities of affinity tagged-proteins using automated multistep chromatographic purification

A new chromatography system, AKTAxpress (GE Healthcare, Amersham Biosciences, Uppsala, Sweden) has been designed to meet the demand for high-throughput purification of proteins in structural genomics and drug discovery. The system offers a number of automated multistep purification protocols for affinity-tagged proteins. All protocols start with affinity chromatography followed by combinations of desalting, ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. As an option, tag removal can be included in the purification protocols. Up to 16 proteins can be purified per day and the yield can be as high as 50 mg of each protein at > 90% purity. To highlight the versatility of the system, this paper presents several case studies; purifications of hexahistidine- and glutathione S-transferase-tagged proteins using different protocols, automated on-column tag cleavage and optimization studies for a hexahistidine-tagged kinase.     

Heat shock protein (hsp 70)-related epitopes are common allergenic determinants for barley and corn antigens

IgE reactive components of barley and corn were compared using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and immunoblotted with sera from workers exposed to complex bioaerosols. The antibody made against Arabdopsis heat shock protein (hsp 70) was used to identify those components equivalent to hsp 70 in molecular size. Components with a molecular mass of 69 kDa and 33 kDa were positively reacted, and immunoblots of two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were compared.     

Extraction chromatographic separation of carrier-free90Y from90Sr/90Y generator by crown ether coated silica gels

A remarkable extraction chromatographic method for the preparation of⁹⁰Y of high radiochemical purity has been developed. The generator consists of silica gel coated crown ether. It functions as a strong adsorber for⁹⁰Sr and in the meantime high purity of⁹⁰Y is eluted with a dilute solution of picric acid after a suitable period. The experiments indicated that DC18C6 coated silica gel is better than that of DB18C6 coated. The extraction capacity of strontium on 3.8% DC18C6 coated silica gel is 5.6 mg Sr/g silica gel. Yttrium is obtained with more than 95% milking yield with radionuclide purity greater than 99.9%. The extraction chromatographic generator does not change its characteristics even after 5 elutions.     

Application of preparative reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography to the isolation of insulin-like growth factor II from human serum

Substantially purified insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) was prepared from human serum. Initial enrichment using ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE Sephadex A50, followed by gel permeation chromatography on Sephadex G-75 in 1% formic acid produced material suitable for application to a preparative reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) column containing LiChroprep RP-18. The latter step gave about 90-fold purification with a recovery of about 70% IGF-II bio-activity. Finally, a small reversed-phase HPLC column achieved a 17-fold purification with similar yield of activity. Overall, the four steps gave IGF-II of about 90% purity in yield of 12%.     

Affinity purification of metalloprotease from marine bacterium using immobilized metal affinity chromatography

In this study, an efficient affinity purification protocol for an alkaline metalloprotease from marine bacterium was developed using immobilized metal affinity chromatography. After screening and optimization of the affinity ligands and spacer arm lengths, Cu‐iminmodiacetic acid was chosen as the optimal affinity ligand, which was coupled to Sepharose 6B via a 14‐atom spacer arm. The absorption analysis of this medium revealed a desorption constant K_d of 21.5 μg/mL and a theoretical maximum absorption Q_max of 24.9 mg/g. Thanks to this affinity medium, the enzyme could be purified by only one affinity purification step with a purity of approximately 95% pure when analyzed by high‐performance liquid chromatography and reducing sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The recovery of the protease activity reached 74.6%, which is much higher than the value obtained by traditional protocols (8.9%). These results contribute to the industrial purifications and contribute a significant reference for the purification of other metalloproteases.     

The characterization and use of different antibodies against the hsp70 major heat shock protein family for the development of an immunoassay.

The hsp70 family of major stress proteins is composed of several different members exhibiting similar structural and functional properties. In order to obtain an antiserum with wide epitope reactivity, rabbits were immunized with a mixture of native and denatured hsp70 purified from bovine muscle by ATP-affinity chromatography. Screening for antibody specificity was performed by a "sandwich" enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting analyses demonstrated that the polyclonal antiserum obtained by us and a monoclonal antibody raised against a different preparation of antigen recognized the same determinant on the native hsp70 molecule (inducible form). With a different specificity the polyclonal antiserum recognized only the denatured monomers of the other members of the hsp70 family. These results are discussed in relation to the immunological features of the hsp70 molecule and to the development of an immunoassay for the detection of hsp70 in cell and tissue extracts.     

An automatic system for multidimensional integrated protein chromatography

An automatic system for multidimensional integrated protein chromatography was designed for simultaneous separation of multiple proteins from complex mixtures, such as human plasma and tissue lysates. This computer-controlled system integrates several chromatographic columns that work independently or cooperatively with one another to achieve efficient high throughputs. The pipelines can be automatically switched either to another column or to a collection container for each UV-detected elution fraction. Environmental contamination is avoided due to the closed fluid paths and elimination of manual column change. This novel system was successfully used for simultaneous preparation of five proteins from the precipitate of human plasma fraction IV (fraction IV). The system involved gel filtration, ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and heparin affinity chromatography. Human serum albumin (HSA), transferrin (Tf), antithrombin-III (AT-III), alpha 1-antitrypsin (α1-AT), and haptoglobin (Hp) were purified within 3 h. The following recovery and purity were achieved: 95% (RSD, 2.8%) and 95% for HSA, 80% (RSD, 2.0%) and 99% for Tf, 70% (RSD, 2.1%) and 99% for AT-III, 65% (RSD, 2.0%) and 94% for α1-AT, and 50% (RSD, 1.0%) and 90% for Hp. The results demonstrate that this novel multidimensional integrated chromatography system is capable of simultaneously separating multiple protein products from the same raw material with high yield and purity and it has the potential for a wide range of multi-step chromatography separation processes.     

The role of tonicity responsive enhancer sites in the transcriptional regulation of human hsp70-2 in response to hypertonic stress

The inducible 70 kDa heat shock proteins (Hsp70) in mice are encoded by two almost identical genes, hsp70.1 and hsp70.3. Studies have found that only hsp70.1 is induced by hypertonic stress while both hsp70.1 and hsp70.3 genes are expressed in response to heat shock stress. It is unclear if the human counterparts, hsp70-2 and hsp70-1, are differentially regulated by heat shock and osmotic stress. This study found that only hsp70-2 was induced by hypertonic stress in human embryonic kidney epithelial cells and fibroblasts, while heat shock stress induced both hsp70-1 and hsp70-2. The human hsp70-2 promoter region contains three TonE (tonicity-responsive enhancer) sites, which were reported to play an important role in the response to hypertonicity. When the reporter plasmids containing different parts of the 5' flanking region of hsp70-2 were transfected into human embryonic kidney epithelial cells or fibroblasts, one TonE site at -135 was found to play a key role in the response to hypertonicity. The inactivation of the TonE site using site-directed mutagenesis led to the complete loss of induction by hypertonicity, which demonstrates the essential role of the TonE site. This suggests that the TonE site and the TonEBP (TonE binding protein) are the major regulators for the cellular response against high osmolarity in human kidney tissue.     

New Thiophilic Adsorbent for the Purification of Insulin and Immunoglobulins G

We have synthesized new supports for the purification of insulin and IgG by affinity chromatography. These supports combine the advantages of biospecific ligands with the excellent separation properties of thiophilic sorbents. The existence of N-acetyl-neuraminic acid in insulin receptor and in the antigenic determinant of IgG suggests that such an acid may develop specific interactions usable in affinity chromatography. Therefore, N-acetylneuraminic acid was used as an active ligand in comparison with the β-mercaptoethanol. The performances of these supports were tested under static and dynamic (LC) conditions. The support functionalized by sialic acid appears significantly more selective than the support grafted by β-mercaptoethanol; and its purification yield is better. This new support showed similar adsorption characteristics with thiophilic adsorbent. These affinity supports allowed a one-step separation of the insulin and IgG subclasses from a pancreatic extract and mouse ascitic fluids, respectively, by LC.     

Metal ion affinity purification of proteins by genetically incorporating metal-chelating amino acids

Affinity tags are efficient tools for protein purification. They allow simple one-step purification of proteins to high purity. However, in some cases the tags cause structural and functional changes in a protein, and need to be removed. Therefore, affinity tags that are readily introduced into proteins with minimal perturbation and have specific affinity for purification are desired. Herein, two metal-chelating amino acids derived from 2,2′-bipyridine and 8-hydroxyquinoline were genetically incorporated into glutathione S-transferase (GST) and the mutant proteins were purified by using the metal ion affinity of the unnatural amino acids. The purification of the GST mutants containing 2-amino-3-(8-hydroxyquinolin-3-yl)propanoic acid (HQA) showed that the proteins could be efficiently enriched in Ni–NTA by the metal ion affinity of the unnatural amino acid and purified to excellent purity. This method should be very useful for general protein affinity purification, especially for proteins whose structure or function is affected by affinity tags fused to N- or C-terminals.     

嗜硫类磁性聚合物微球高效分离抗体

用微悬浮聚合技术制备微米级顺磁性的聚合物微球,并通过水解反应在其表面生成丰富的羟基,进而通过二乙烯基砜活化,在其表面修饰2-巯基嘧啶,实现磁性微球对人体免疫球蛋白G(IgG)的特异性识别.进一步探讨了不同解吸附环境,如pH值、温度、离子种类、离子强度等条件,对这种特异性吸附行为的影响.采用此磁性分离技术后,分离抗体的纯度超过92%,抗体活性高于99%.通过连续分离工艺,IgG的分离效率达到86.8%.     

微囊藻毒素-RR的纯化及鉴定

将固相萃取和凝胶色谱技术相结合,建立了以野外采集的水华蓝藻为原料提取和纯化微囊藻毒素-RR(MC-RR)的有效方法。用70%的甲醇溶液溶解35 g藻浆,经离心等系列处理,得粗提液,旋转蒸发去除甲醇;粗提液经HLB柱固相萃取后,得到7.5 mL洗脱液,然后将其浓缩至2 mL,再用Sephadex LH-20凝胶色谱柱分离纯化,洗脱液分管收集,用紫外分光光度计测定每管洗脱液在238 nm的吸收值,并绘制洗脱曲线。使用高效液相色谱对峰值组分进行鉴定,同时利用紫外分光光度计对毒素的光谱特征进行鉴定。最终获得3.65 mg纯度超过90%的MC-RR样品,产品得率为74.1%。其紫外吸收光谱在238 nm处有特征吸收,证明所纯化的样品为MC-RR。     

Efficient purification of recombinant proteins fused to maltose-binding protein by mixed-mode chromatography

Two mixed-mode resins were evaluated as an alternative to conventional affinity resins for the purification of recombinant proteins fused to maltose-binding protein (MPB). We purified recombinant MBP, MBP-LacZ and MBP-Leap2 from crude Escherichia coli extracts. Mixed-mode resins allowed the efficient purification of MBP-fused proteins. Indeed, the quantity of purified proteins was significantly higher with mixed-mode resins, and their purity was equivalent to that obtained with affinity resins. By using purified MBP, MBP-LacZ and MBP-Leap2, the dynamic binding capacity of mixed-mode resins was 5-fold higher than that of affinity resins. Moreover, the recovery for the three proteins studied was in the 50–60% range for affinity resins, and in the 80–85% range for mixed-mode resins. Mixed-mode resins thus represent a powerful alternative to the classical amylose or dextrin resins for the purification of recombinant proteins fused to maltose-binding protein.     

Factorial screening of antibody purification processes using three chromatography steps without protein A

Protein A affinity chromatography is often employed as a capture step to meet the purity, yield, and throughput requirements for pharmaceutical antibody purification. However, a trade-off exists between step performance and price. Protein A resin removes 99.9% of feed stream impurities; however, its price is significantly greater than those of non-affinity media. With many therapeutic indications for antibodies requiring high doses and/or chronic administration, the consideration of process economics is critical. We have systematically evaluated the purification performance of cation-exchange, anion-exchange, hydroxyapatite, hydrophobic interaction, hydrophobic charge induction, and small-molecule ligand resins in each step of a three-step chromatographic purification process for a CHO-derived monoclonal antibody. Host cell proteins were removed to less-than-detectable for three processes (cation-exchange-anion-exchange-hydrophobic interaction chromatography, cation-exchange-anion-exchange-mixed cation-exchange chromatography, and cation-exchange-mixed cation-exchange-anion-exchange chromatography). The order of the process steps affected purification performance significantly.     

Purification of crude DNA oligonucleotides by solid-phase extraction and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Purification of target oligodeoxyribonucleotides from failure sequence by-products of synthesis is often required for polymerase chain reaction primers, DNA sequencing and other oligonucleotide applications. We have developed purification protocols based on a reversed-phase mechanism ("trityl on" purification) using a 96-well Oasis HLB extraction plate. The Oasis HLB sorbent combines excellent pH stability with a high loading capacity allowing for single-step purification of 0.2 microM scale synthesis. After sample loading and washing, the oligonucleotide trityl group is cleaved on the plate with 2% trifluoroacetic acid. Target DNA is eluted with acetonitrile-0.36 mM triethylamine acetate, pH 11.3 (10:90, v/v). Typical yield of purified product is 60-95%. Final purity, measured by capillary gel electrophoresis, was found to be 90% or greater. Alternatively, highly pure oligonucleotides can be obtained by a RP-HPLC "trityl off" method using an XTerra C18 column. The use of volatile triethylamine acetate buffer as an ion-pair for RP-HPLC eliminates the need for further desalting.     

The effective and specific isolation of antibodies from human serum by using thiophilic paramagnetic polymer beads

A rapid and effective method to specifically isolate immunoglobulin G (IgG) from human serum by thiophilic paramagnetic polymer beads was developed. The thiophilic paramagnetic beads were synthesized with vinyl acetate and divinylbenzene by microsuspension polymerization in the presence of magnetite nanoparticles. Divinylsulfone and 2-mercapto-benzothiazole were subsequently used to modify the surface of these beads, resulting in thiophilic particles that exhibited a high specificity to the antibodies in serum at low salt concentration. The adsorbed IgG was eluted by 0.8 M KCl and 72% of the IgG in the serum was recovered. The purity of the isolated IgG reached 98.4% and the bioactivity was fully maintained (>99%). The high efficiency, mild conditions and simplicity make this technology suitable for the economic purification of antibodies in a large scale.     

Rapid and efficient one‐step purification of a serralysin family protease by using a p‐aminobenzamidine‐modified affinity medium

The metalloproteinase MP belongs to the serralysin family, which is involved in important functions such as nutrient acquisition and infection pathogenesis. Serralysin proteases in highly purified form are commonly used at the industrial level with several purposes. In this study, we set up an efficient and rapid purification protocol for MP using a p‐aminobenzamidine‐modified affinity chromatography. The affinity medium was synthesized by using p‐aminobenzamidine as affinity ligand immobilized via cyanuric chloride spacer to Sepharose 6B sorbent carrier. According to the adsorption analysis, the dissociation constant K _d and theoretical maximum adsorption Q _max of this medium were 24.2 μg/mL and 24.1 mg/g wet sorbent, respectively. The purity of MP was assessed by a high‐performance liquid chromatography on a TSK3000SW column and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, revealing values of 98.7 and ∼98%, respectively. The specific activity of purified MP was 95.6 U/mg, which is similar to values obtained through traditional purification protocols. In conclusion, our protocol could be easily employed for the rapid isolation of MP with high purity, and could be implemented for other serralysin family proteases.     

Novel affinity chromatography method for the efficient purification of recombinant Binder of SPerm homolog proteins

In mammalian species, a family of proteins named the Binder of SPerm proteins, which are expressed in the male reproductive tract, have been shown to play a role in epididymal sperm maturation and sperm capacitation. Recently, one homolog from human and two homologs from mouse were characterized. In order to further investigate the biochemical activity of these proteins, efficient purification procedures are required to isolate the proteins. Since these proteins are produced in very minute quantities, we exploited the high capacity of Escherichia coli to produce larger quantities of recombinant proteins that were subsequently purified using affinity chromatography on a diethylaminoethyl‐Sephadex A‐25 column. Binder of SPerm proteins have been shown to interact with pseudo‐choline groups such as diethylaminoethyl through affinity rather than ionic interactions. The aim of the current study was to develop a novel method for purifying these recombinant proteins, produced in Escherichia coli cells. Diethylaminoethyl is positively charged and is a weak anion exchanger, but binder of sperm proteins interacts with affinity to this resin. This study presents a new, rapid, and cost‐effective purification method that provides with an exceptional purity level, which can be used to study their roles in mammalian fertilization.