On-column refolding of consensus interferon at high concentration with guanidine-hydrochloride and polyethylene glycol gradients

Dilution refolding of consensus interferon (C-IFN) had a limit on final concentration not exceeding 0.1 mg ml(-1) in order to achieve specific activity of 2.2x10(8) U mg(-1). Addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) only gave a marginal improvement on the specific activity. Hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC) was tried but a simple step-wise elution could not refold the protein. Successful refolding was achieved by gradient elution with the decreasing of guanidine-hydrochloride (guanidine-HCl) concentration. The column was packed with a commercially available HIC medium that was designed for protein separation. Polyethylene glycol was found to possess better effect on the column than in the dilution for promotion of correct refolding, especially in gradient mode. A novel dual-gradient strategy, consisting of decreasing guanidine-HCl concentration and increasing PEG concentration, was developed to enhance the refolding yield. Denatured C-IFN was allowed to adsorb and elute from the HIC column through a gradually changed solution environment. Compared with dilution refolding, the gradient HIC process, in the presence of PEG, gave about 2.6-folds of increase in specific activity, 30% increase in soluble protein recovery. Partial purification was also achieved simultaneously.     

Refolding human lysozyme produced as an inclusion body by urea concentration and pH gradient ion exchange chromatography

Summary A new dual-gradient ion exchange chromatographic method was developed to improve the refolding yield of human lysozyme produced inEscherichia coli as an inclusion body. The dissolved and stretched polypeptide chain in a concentrated non-ionic denaturant was adsorbed onto an ion exchange column and induced to refold by gradually decreasing the denaturant concentration and increasing pH in the flowing buffer. The dual gradients of denaturant concentration and pH provided a gradual change of the solution environment along the chromatographic column for the protein to refold, resulting in enhanced activity yield and purity. A post-separation was also studied using size-exclusion chromatography to remove protein aggregates and mis-folded proteins after the refolding step.     

High pH Solubilization and Chromatography-Based Renaturation and Purification of Recombinant Human Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor from Inclusion Bodies

Recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) is a very efficient therapeutic protein drug which has been widely used in human clinics to treat cancer patients suffering from chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. In this study, rhG-CSF was solubilized from inclusion bodies by using a high-pH solution containing low concentration of urea. It was found that solubilization of the rhG-CSF inclusion bodies greatly depended on the buffer pH employed; alkalic pH significantly favored the solubilization. In addition, when small amount of urea was added to the solution at high pH, the solubilization was further enhanced. After solubilization, the rhG-CSF was renatured with simultaneous purification by using weak anion exchange, strong anion exchange, and hydrophobic interaction chromatography, separately. The results indicated that the rhG-CSF solubilized by the high-pH solution containing low concentration of urea had much higher mass recovery than the one solubilized by 8 M urea when using anyone of the three refolding methods employed in this work. In the case of weak anion exchange chromatography, the high pH solubilized rhG-CSF could get a mass recovery of 73%. The strategy of combining solubilization of inclusion bodies at high pH with refolding of protein using liquid chromatography may become a routine method for protein production from inclusion bodies.     

Adsorptive refolding of a highly disulfide-bonded inclusion body protein using anion-exchange chromatography

α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is a prospective biopharmaceutical candidate currently undergoing advanced-stage clinical trials for autoimmune indications. The high AFP expression yields in the form of inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli renders the inclusion body route potentially advantageous for process scale commercial manufacture, if high-throughput refolding can be achieved. This study reports the successful development of an ‘anion-exchange chromatography’-based refolding process for recombinant human AFP (rhAFP), which carries the challenges of contaminant spectrum and molecule complexity. rhAFP was readily refolded on-column at rhAFP concentrations unachievable with dilution refolding due to viscosity and solubility constraints. DEAE-FF functioned as a refolding enhancer to achieve rhAFP refolding yield of 28% and product purity of 95% in 3 h, at 1 mg/ml protein refolding concentration. Optimization of both refolding and chromatography column operation parameters (i.e. resin chemistry, column geometry, redox potential and feed conditioning) significantly improved rhAFP refolding efficiency. Compared to dilution refolding, on-column rhAFP refolding productivity was 9-fold higher, while that of off-column refolding was more than an order of magnitude higher. Successful demonstration that a simple anion-exchange column can, in a single step, readily refold and purify semi-crude rhAFP comprising 16 disulfide bonds, will certainly extend the application of column refolding to a myriad of complex industrial inclusion body proteins.     

Efficient refolding of a hydrophobic protein with multiple S-S bonds by on-resin immobilized metal affinity chromatography

The efficient refolding of recombinant proteins produced in the form of inclusion bodies (IBs) in Escherichia coli still is a complicated experimental problem especially for large hydrophobic highly disulfide-bonded proteins. The aim of this work was to develop highly efficient and simple refolding procedure for such a protein. The recombinant C-terminal fragment of human alpha-fetoprotein (rAFP-Cterm), which has molecular weight of 26 kDa and possesses 6 S-S bonds, was expressed in the form of IBs in E. coli. The C-terminal 7× His tag was introduced to facilitate protein purification and refolding. The refolding procedure of the immobilized protein by immobilized metal chelating chromatography (IMAC) was developed. Such hydrophobic highly disulfide-bonded proteins tend to irreversibly bind to traditionally used agarose-based matrices upon attempted refolding of the immobilized protein. Indeed, the yield of rAFP-Cterm upon its refolding by IMAC on agarose-based matrix was negligible with bulk of the protein irreversibly stacked to the resin. The key has occurred to be using IMAC based on silica matrix. This increased on-resin refolding yield of the target protein from almost 0 to 60% with purity 98%. Compared to dilution refolding of the same protein, the productivity of the developed procedure was two orders higher. There was no need for further purification or concentration of the renatured protein. The usage of silica-based matrix for the refolding of immobilized proteins by IMAC can improve and facilitate the experimental work for difficult-to-refold proteins.     

Purification of a crystallin domain of Yersinia crystallin from inclusion bodies and its comparison to native protein from the soluble fraction

It has been established that many heterologously produced proteins in E. coli accumulate as insoluble inclusion bodies. Methods for protein recovery from inclusion bodies involve solubilization using chemical denaturants such as urea and guanidine hydrochloride, followed by removal of denaturant from the solution to allow the protein to refold. In this work, we applied on-column refolding and purification to the second crystallin domain D2 of Yersinia crystallin isolated from inclusion bodies. We also purified the protein from the soluble fraction (without using any denaturant) to compare the biophysical properties and conformation, although the yield was poor. On-column refolding method allows rapid removal of denaturant and refolding at high protein concentration, which is a limitation in traditionally used methods of dialysis or dilution. We were also able to develop methods to remove the co-eluting nucleic acids during chromatography from the protein preparation. Using this protocol, we were able to rapidly refold and purify the crystallin domain using a two-step process with high yield. We used biophysical techniques to compare the conformation and calcium-binding properties of the protein isolated from the soluble fraction and inclusion bodies.     

Refolding and purification of histidine-tagged protein by artificial chaperone-assisted metal affinity chromatography

This article has proposed an artificial chaperone-assisted immobilized metal affinity chromatography (AC-IMAC) for on-column refolding and purification of histidine-tagged proteins. Hexahistidine-tagged enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli, and refolded and purified from urea-solubilized inclusion bodies by the strategy. The artificial chaperone system was composed of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). In the refolding process, denatured protein was mixed with CTAB to form a protein–CTAB complex. The mixture was then loaded to IMAC column and the complex was bound via metal chelating to the histidine tag. This was followed by washing with a refolding buffer containing β-CD that removed CTAB from the bound protein and initiated on-column refolding. The effect of the washing time (i.e., on-column refolding time) on mass and fluorescence recoveries was examined. Extensive studies by comparison with other related refolding techniques have proved the advantages of AC-IMAC. In the on-column refolding, the artificial chaperone system suppressed protein interactions and facilitated protein folding to its native structure. So, the on-column refolding by AC-IMAC led to 99% pure EGFP with a fluorescence recovery of 80%. By comparison at a similar final EGFP concentration (0.6–0.8 mg/mL), this fluorescence recovery value was not only much higher than direct dilution (14%) and AC-assisted refolding (26%) in bulk solutions, but also superior to its partner, IMAC (60%). The operating conditions would be further optimized to improve the refolding efficiency.     

Refolding and purification of rhNTA protein by chromatography

RhNTA protein is a new thrombolytic agent which has potential medicinal and commercial value. Protein refolding is a bottleneck for large‐scale production of valuable proteins expressed as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli. The denatured rhNTA protein was refolded by an improved size‐exclusion chromatography refolding process achieved by combining an increasing arginine gradient and a decreasing urea gradient (two gradients) with a size‐exclusion chromatography refolding system. The refolding of denatured rhNTA protein showed that this method could significantly increase the activity recovery of protein at high protein concentration. The activity recovery of 37% was obtained from the initial rhNTA protein concentration up to 20 mg/mL. After refolding by two‐gradient size‐exclusion chromatography refolding processes, the refolded rhNTA was purified by ion‐exchange and affinity chromatography. The purified rhNTA protein showed one band in SDS‐PAGE and the specific activity of purified rhNTA protein was 110,000 U/mg. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of sample loop dimension on lysozyme refolding in size-exclusion chromatography

The formation of misfolded protein aggregates, in particular inclusion bodies, has been widely considered as the major hindrance of good yield in refolding processes. To enhance the performance of protein refolding, extensive efforts were directed toward seeking out methods or means to reduce the aggregate production during the refolding process. Since simultaneous refolding and separation can be feasibly achieved within the packing matrices, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) has been regarded as an efficient buffer exchange method to enhance protein refolding performance As of now, the effect of the process or operating parameters has yet to be thoroughly investigated. The present work is aimed at understanding how aggregate formation, as well as renaturation yield, varied with the diameter or length of sample loop in size-exclusion chromatography refolding process. Our results showed that not much difference was found in the patterns of aggregate formation for the contraction and the control cases. However, the formation of an additional peak was observed in the expansion cases. In addition, the amount of aggregates was not dependent on the sample loop diameter or length, but instead, influenced by injection volume and protein concentration. It was further concluded that a sample with large volume and low concentration was preferable for refolding process. We believe that the outcome from this work may shed light on the development of a more effective strategy for refolding processes.     

Heterologous expression, purification, refolding, and structural-functional characterization of EP-B2, a self-activating barley cysteine endoprotease

We describe the heterologous expression in Escherichia coli of the proenzyme precursor to EP-B2, a cysteine endoprotease from germinating barley seeds. High yields (50 mg/l) of recombinant proEP-B2 were obtained from E. coli inclusion bodies in shake flask cultures following purification and refolding. The zymogen was rapidly autoactivated to its mature form under acidic conditions at a rate independent of proEP-B2 concentration, suggesting a cis mechanism of autoactivation. Mature EP-B2 was stable and active over a wide pH range and efficiently hydrolyzed a recombinant wheat gluten protein, alpha2-gliadin, at sequences with known immunotoxicity in celiac sprue patients. The X-ray crystal structure of mature EP-B2 bound to leupeptin was solved to 2.2 A resolution and provided atomic insights into the observed subsite specificity of the endoprotease. Our findings suggest that orally administered proEP-B2 may be especially well suited for treatment of celiac sprue.     

MMP-12 蛋白包涵体复性时折叠状态核磁共振图谱与荧光光谱研究

MMP-12 是癌症治疗药物靶标. 为了更好研制新药, 需要大量制备MMP-12, 但MMP-12 在大肠杆菌中以包涵体形式表达. 因此如何优化蛋白复性过程是大量获取MMP-12 蛋白的关键. 采用核磁共振、稳态荧光法、外源性ANS (8-anilinol-naphthalenesulfonic acid)荧光探针三种方法监控MMP-12 变性蛋白的再折叠过程, 以探究其复性折叠机制. 研究发现MMP-12 再折叠中点值与对应的尿素浓度几乎相等(C_m≈4, mid-point of transition). 不同尿素浓度中MMP-12 的二维¹H-¹⁵N HSQC (heteronuclear single quantum correlation)谱图显示, 尿素浓度从4 mol/L 降低到3 mol/L 是MMP-12 蛋白复性折叠的关键步骤. 据此我们将MMP-12 蛋白复性从常规的梯度透析复性方法改进成等容透析复性法(即确保尿素从4 mol/L 到3 mol/L 的浓度变化缓慢), 实现复性收率提高一倍.     

Renaturation of heterodimeric platelet-derived growth factor from inclusion bodies of recombinant Escherichia coli using size-exclusion chromatography.

A procedure for renaturation of heterodimeric platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-AB) from inclusion bodies of recombinant Escherichia coli using size-exclusion chromatography is described. Either prepurified or crude PDGF-AB inclusion bodies solubilized with guanidinium hydrochloride were subjected to buffer exchange from denaturing to renaturing conditions during chromatography. Renaturation of PDGF-AB involves folding of the solubilized and unfolded molecules into dimerization competent monomers during size-exclusion chromatography and subsequent dimerization of folded monomers into the biologically active heterodimeric growth factor. Optimized conditions result in an overall yield of 75% active PDGF-AB with respect to size-exclusion chromatography and subsequent dimerization. The described approach allows renaturation at high protein concentrations and circumvents aggregation which is observed when refolding is carried out by dilution.     

One‐step refolding and purification of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor‐α (rhTNF‐α) using ion‐exchange chromatography

Protein refolding is a key step for the production of recombinant proteins, especially at large scales, and usually their yields are very low. Chromatographic‐based protein refolding techniques have proven to be superior to conventional dilution refolding methods. High refolding yield can be achieved using these methods compared with dilution refolding of proteins. In this work, recombinant human tumor necrosis factor‐α (rhTNF‐α) from inclusion bodies expressed in Escherichia coli was renatured with simultaneous purification by ion exchange chromatography with a DEAE Sepharose FF column. Several chromatographic parameters influencing the refolding yield of the denatured/reduced rhTNF‐α, such as the urea concentration, pH value and concentration ratio of glutathione/oxidized glutathione in the mobile phase, were investigated in detail. Under optimal conditions, rhTNF‐α can be renatured and purified simultaneously within 30 min by one step. Specific bioactivity of 2.18 × 10⁸ IU/mg, purity of 95.2% and mass recovery of 76.8% of refolded rhTNF‐α were achieved. Compared with the usual dilution method, the ion exchange chromatography method developed here is simple and more effective for rhTNF‐α refolding in terms of specific bioactivity and mass recovery. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhanced refolding of lysozyme with imidazolium-based room temperature ionic liquids: Effect of hydrophobicity and sulfur residue

The expression of recombinant proteins in microorganism frequently leads to the formation of insoluble aggregates, inclusion bodies (IBs). Thus, the additional in vitro protein refolding process is required to convert inactive IBs into water-soluble active proteins. This study investigated the effect of sulfur residue and hydrophobicity of imidazolium-based room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) on the refolding of lysozyme as a model protein in the batch dilution method which is the most commonly used refolding method. When lysozyme was refolded in the refolding buffer containing [BF4]-based RTILs with a systematic variety of alkyl chain on cations varying from two to eight, less hydrophobic imidazolium cations having shorter alkyl chains were effective to facilitate lysozyme refolding. Compared to the conventional refolding buffer, 2 times higher lysozyme refolding yield was obtained in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([EMIM][BF4]) containing refolding buffer. The refolding yield of lysozyme was even more increased by 2.5 times when 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate ([BMIM][MS]) containing sulfur residue on anion was used. The sulfur residue in [BMIM][MS] is supposed to improve the refolding yield of lysozyme which has 4 intramolecular disulfide bonds. For dilution-based refolding of lysozyme, the optimum concentrations of RTILs in refolding buffer were found to be 1.0 M [EMIM][BF4] and 0.5 M [BMIM][MS], respectively. The optimum temperate for dilution-based refolding of lysozyme with RTILs was 4 °C.     

Enhanced In Vitro Refolding of Soluble Human Glucocorticoid-Induced TNF Receptor-Related Ligand

The glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor (GITR) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily. Attachment of GITR to its ligand (GITRL) regulates diverse biological functions, including cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival. In this study, the extracellular region of human GITRL (hGITRL) was cloned, expressed, and purified. The coding sequence of the extracellular region of hGITRL was isolated from human brain cDNA and inserted in pET20b vector. The hGITRL was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) Star at 37 and 25 °C. The majority of the protein was found in inclusion bodies. We identified three important factors for efficient refolding of hGITRL: a ratio of GSH/GSSG, pH, and addition of polyethylene glycol. The renaturated protein was purified by Ni-NTA chromatography. The overall yield of the expression and refolding was higher than 50 mg/l E. coli culture grown at 37 °C. Size exclusion chromatography showed that hGITRL exists as mixture of various multimeric forms in solution. We tested the association of recombinant hGITRL with THP-1 and U937 cell lines and its activity to promote extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase phosphorylation. The results showed that the recombinant protein was biologically active.     

Application of combined reagent solution to the oxidative refolding of recombinant human interleukin 6

Human interleukin 6 (hIL-6), which is a cytokine involved in diverse biological activities, consists of a four-helix bundle with two disulfide bonds. For the clinical use of hIL-6 in cancer therapy, designing of commercial-scale production systems of recombinant hIL-6 (rhIL-6) expressed by E. coli has been attempted. Since rhIL-6 has been produced as inclusion bodies in the expression systems reported to date, establishment of a strategy to achieve a high yield of refolding of this recombinant protein is quite desirable. It has been reported that oxidation of rhIL-6 under a completely denaturing condition suppresses aggregation during the refolding process [Ejima et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng., 62, 301-310 (1999)]. In this protocol, however, small but significant amounts of unidentified by-products unavoidably arose, which might be problematic in the therapeutic use of rhIL-6. In the present study, detailed characterization of the individual by-products has been performed on inspection of peptide maps, and the by-products found to originate from improperly formed disulfide bonds, most of which are disulfide-linked dimers. In order to minimize these by-products, combined solutions of urea and LiCl were used for oxidative refolding of rhIL-6. It was demonstrated that combined use of 1-2 M urea and 1-3 M LiCl effectively suppresses the formation of the by-products as well as aggregates. We propose that the use of the combined reagents can be an alternative method for refolding of rhIL-6 for clinical purposes.     

还原变性核糖核酸酶在疏水性液-固界面上的复性

采用疏水相互作用色谱(HIC)对还原变性核糖核酸酶A (RNase A)在疏水性液-固界面上的复性进行了研究。详细讨论了流动相中脲的浓度、还原型谷胱甘肽/氧化型谷胱甘肽(GSH/GSSG)的比例、流动相pH和变性蛋白质浓度对还原变性RNase A复性效率和质量回收率的影响。结果表明,在最优化的复性条件(流动相中含有2.0 mol/L脲,GSH/GSSG的浓度比为8:1,流动相pH为8.0)下,还原变性RNase A能完全复性。当变性蛋白质质量浓度为5.0 mg/mL时,还原脲变性RNase A的活性回收率和质量回收率分别为98.0%和61.9%,还原胍变性RNase A分别为100.1%和66.8%。研究表明HIC是还原变性蛋白质复性的有力工具之一,可为蛋白质复性研究提供新方法和新思路。     

Refolding and simultaneous purification of recombinant human proinsulin from inclusion bodies on protein‐folding liquid‐chromatography columns

Protein‐folding liquid chromatography (PFLC) is an effective and scalable method for protein renaturation with simultaneous purification. However, it has been a challenge to fully refold inclusion bodies in a PFLC column. In this work, refolding with simultaneous purification of recombinant human proinsulin (rhPI) from inclusion bodies from Escherichia coli were investigated using the surface of stationary phases in immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) and high‐performance size‐exclusion chromatography (HPSEC). The results indicated that both the ligand structure on the surface of the stationary phase and the composition of the mobile phase (elution buffer) influenced refolding of rhPI. Under optimized chromatographic conditions, the mass recoveries of IMAC column and HPSEC column were 77.8 and 56.8% with purifies of 97.6 and 93.7%, respectively. These results also indicated that the IMAC column fails to refold rhPI, and the HPSEC column enables efficient refolding of rhPI with a low‐urea gradient‐elution method. The refolded rhPI was characterized by circular dichroism spectroscopy. The molecular weight of the converted human insulin was further confirmed with SDS–18% PAGE, Matrix‐Assisted Laser Desorption/ Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF‐MS) and the biological activity assay by HP‐RPLC. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimization of Human Granulocyte Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor (hGM-CSF) Expression Using Asparaginase and Xylanase Gene’s Signal Sequences in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis>

The toxicity of the recombinant protein towards the expression host remains a significant deterrent for bioprocess development. In this study, the expression of human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF), which is known to be toxic to its host, was enhanced many folds using a combination of genetic and bioprocess strategies in Escherichia coli. The N terminus attachment of endoxylanase and asparaginase signal sequences from Bacillus subtilis and E. coli, respectively, in combination with and without His-tag, considerably improved expression levels. Induction and media optimization studies in shake flask cultures resulted in a maximal hGM-CSF concentration of 365 mg/L in the form of inclusion bodies (IBs) with a specific product yield (Y _P/X) of 120 mg/g dry cell weight in case of the asparaginase signal. Culturing the cells in nutrient rich Terrific broth maintained the specific product yields (Y _P/X) while a 6.6-fold higher volumetric concentration of both product and biomass was obtained. The purification and refolding steps were optimized resulting in a 95% pure protein with a fairly high refolding yield of 45%. The biological activity of the refolded protein was confirmed by a cell proliferation assay on hGM-CSF dependent human erythroleukemia TF-1 cells. This study demonstrated that this indeed is a viable route for the efficient production of hGM-CSF.     

Solubilization and Refolding with Simultaneous Purification of Recombinant Human Stem Cell Factor

Recombinant human stem cell factor (rhSCF) was solubilized and renatured from inclusion bodies expressed in Escherichia coli. The effect of both pH and urea on the solubilization of rhSCF inclusion bodies was investigated; the results indicate that the solubilization of rhSCF inclusion bodies was significantly influenced by the pH of the solution employed, and low concentration of urea can drastically improve the solubilization of rhSCF when solubilized by high pH solution. The solubilized rhSCF can be easily refolded with simultaneous purification by ion exchange chromatography (IEC), with a specific activity of 7.8 × 10⁵ IU·mg⁻¹, a purity of 96.3%, and a mass recovery of 43.0%. The presented experimental results show that rhSCF solubilized by high pH solution containing low concentration of urea is easier to be renatured than that solubilized by high concentration of urea, and the IEC refolding method was more efficient than dilution refolding and dialysis refolding for rhSCF. It may have a great potential for large-scale production of rhSCF.