New downstream processing strategy for the purification of monoclonal antibodies from transgenic tobacco plants

Affinity chromatography on immobilized Protein A is the current method of choice for the purification of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Despite its widespread use it presents certain drawbacks, such as ligand instability, leaching, toxicity and high cost. In the present work, we report a new procedure for the purification of two human monoclonal anti-HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) antibodies (mAbs 2G12 and 4E10) from transgenic tobacco plants using stable and low cost chromatographic materials. The first step of the mAb 2G12 purification procedure is comprised of an aqueous two-phase partition system (ATPS) for the removal of polyphenols while providing an essential initial purification boost (2.01-fold purification). In the second step, mAb 2G12 was purified using cation-exchange chromatography (CEX) on S-Sepharose FF, by elution with 20mM sodium phosphate buffer pH 7.5, containing 0.1M NaCl. The eluted mAb was directly loaded onto an immobilized metal affinity chromatography column (IMAC, Zn(2+)-iminodiacetic acid-Sepharose 6B) and eluted by stepwise pH gradient. The proposed method offered 162-fold purification with 97.2% purity and 63% yield. Analysis of the antibody preparation by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), enzyme immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and western blot showed that the mAb 2G12 was fully active and free of degraded variants, polyphenols and alkaloids. The effectiveness of the present purification protocol was evaluated by using a second transgenic human monoclonal anti-HIV mAb 4E10. The results showed that the same procedure can be successfully used for the purification of mAb 4E10. In the case of mAb 4E10, the proposed method offered 148-fold purification with 96.2% purity and 36% yield. Therefore, the proposed protocol may be of generic use for the purification of mAbs from transgenic tobacco plants.     

Isotachophoretic determination of the ionic mobilities and ionization constants of weak monoacidic bases by a simple computer-aided slope-intercept method

Shrimp abdomenal muscle NADP-dependent malic enzyme (E.C.1.1.1.40) was purified about 1500-fold to a specific activity of 48 units (mumol/min)/mg at 30 degrees C with good quantitative recovery in three chromatographic steps, including affinity chromatography on 2',5'-ADP-Sepharose 4B, a "substrate activation" method using malate substrate plus manganese chloride. In addition to the malate-manganese chloride substrate pair, succinate or glutamate plus manganese chloride or magnesium chloride could be used in this "substrate activation" method for crustacean NADP-malic enzyme purification on 2',5'-ADP-Sepharose 4B. Affinity chromatography alone purified malic enzyme almost 43 fold, and the overall method resulted in homogeneous enzyme since polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the native purified enzyme revealed only a single band staining for protein and enzyme activity.     

Human plasma lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase. Preparation and use of immobilized p-aminophenylarsenoxide as a catalytic site-directed covalent ligand in enzyme purification.

A method is described for the preparation of p-aminophenylarsenoxide-linked carboxymethyl (CM) Bio-Gel A and its use as a specific, catalytic site-directed affinity chromatography ligand in the final stages of the purification of human plasma lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) (EC 2.3.1.43). Previous mechanistic studies by us demonstrated that phenylarsenoxide derivatives, which are highly specific for vicinal thiols, could inhibit LCAT via a covalent interaction with the sulphydryl groups of the two catalytic cysteine residues and that this inhibition could be rapidly and completely reversed upon addition of 2,3-dimercaptopropanesulphonic acid. The ligand was covalently linked to CM Bio-Gel A activated through an N-hydroxysuccinyl ester formed by N-hydroxysuccinimide and dicyclohexylcarbodiimide in dry dimethyl sulphoxide; 87% of the added p-aminophenylarsenoxide was coupled to the CM Bio-Gel A in 3 h at 25 degrees C giving 2.3 mg of p-aminophenylarsenoxide per ml of gel. Homogeneous LCAT free of apo A-I, apo E, apo D and albumin was obtained in an 11% yield and purified 15,013-fold overall. A 13-fold purification was obtained by chromatography upon p-aminophenylarsenoxide-CM Bio-Gel A. This method is a useful final step in LCAT purification and will prove valuable in the purification of other proteins and compounds containing vicinal thiols.     

Purification of polar compounds from Radix isatidis using conventional C18 column coupled with polar-copolymerized C18 column

Regarding hydrophilic interaction chromatography and normal phase liquid chromatography, RPLC is another choice used to separate polar compounds with the improvement of polar-modified C18 stationary phase. In this study, a method using conventional C18 column coupled with polar-copolymerized C18 column was successfully developed for the separation and purification of polar compounds from Radix isatidis, which is one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). An XTerra MS C18 column was used to fractionate the extract of R. isatidis and a homemade polar-copolymerized C18 column was utilized for the final purification due to its good separation selectivity and high resolution for polar compounds. The established purification system demonstrated good orthogonality for the polar compounds. As a result, ten compounds were purified and three of them were identified as 3-methyl-5-vinyloxazolidin-2-one (compound A), 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde (compound B) and 3-methylfuran-2-carboxylic acid (compound G) based on the MS, IR and extensive NMR data, respectively. It was demonstrated to be a feasible and powerful technique for the purification of polar compounds under RPLC mode and more chemical information of TCMs will be obtained to interpret the efficiency of TCMs.     

Affinity Chromatography of Ribitol Dehydrogenase,a Possible New Zinc Enzyme from Mycobacterium Butyricum

Abstract

An effective purification procedure of ribitol dehydrogenase (RDH), a possible new zinc enzyme from Mycobacterium butyricum is described. The procedure took advantage of different chromatographic methods in which the most significant were two affinity chromatography steps. One of them was the immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC), with the use of iminodiacetate-Sepharose 6B (IDA-Sepharose 6B) chelating Zn²⁺ ions (IDA-Zn) as an affinity sorbent. The enzyme was eluted with a decreasing pH gradient from 7 to 4. The other step was a biospecific affinity chromatography, where the enzyme retained on 5′ AMP-Sepharose 6B was eluted with 10 mM adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP). RDH was purified 174-fold with 10.2% of recovery, and the final preparation was homogenous in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.     

Purification of soluble acetylcholinesterase from sheep liver by affinity chromatography

The purpose of this study was to develop a protocol for the purification of acetylcholinesterase (AChE, acetylcholine acetylhydrolase, E.C.3.1.1.7) enzyme and to extend a purification method for further enzyme characterization. A further aim was to study whether the edrophonium’s pharmacologic action is due primarily to the inhibition or inactivation of AChE at sites of cholinergic transmission. The purification of a soluble AChE from sheep liver using affinity chromatography on Concanavalin A–Sepharose 4B and edrophonium–Sepharose 6B is studied. The affinity matrix was synthesized by coupling an inhibitor edrophonium to epoxy-activated Sepharose at flow rate of 0.5 ml/min. AChE is a pivotal enzyme in the cholinergic nervous system. Its primary function is to catalyze hydrolysis of released acetylcholine (ACh) and thus maintain homeostasis of this neurotransmitter in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Hence, AChE is important in both pharmacological and toxicological mechanisms. It was purified 842-fold with a specific activity of 21 U/mg protein. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) electrophoresis resulted in a monomeric molecular weight of 67.04 kDa, while on gel chromatography using Sephacryl S-200 under nondenaturing conditions to be 201.5 kDa. Based on the molecular weight obtained by gel filtration, the purified AChE was assumed to be a tetrameric form.     

Preparative separation and identification of the flavonoid phlorhizin from the crude extract of Lithocarpus polystachyus Rehd

The flavonoid phlorhizin is abundant in the leaves of Sweet Tea (ST, Lithocarpus Polystachyus Rehd). Phlorhizin was preparatively separated and purified from a crude ST extract containing 40% total flavonoids by static adsorption and dynamic desorption on ADS-7 macroporous resin and neutral alumina column chromatography. Only water and ethanol were used as solvents and eluants throughout the whole separation and purification process. Using a phlorhizin standard as the reference compound, the target compound separated from the crude ST extracts was analyzed by thin layer chromatography (TLC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EIS-MS) and identified as 99.87% pure (by HPLC-UV) phlorhizin. The results showed that 10 g of the target compound could be obtained from 40 g of the crude extracts in a single operation, indicating a 40% recovery. Therefore, this represents an efficient and environmentally-friendly technology for separating and purifying phlorhizin from ST leaves.     

An efficient scheme for purification of a novel recombinant immunotoxin,rCCK8PE38, for anti‐tumour experiments

rCCK8PE38 is a novel immunotoxin that targets choleystokinin B receptor, which is over‐expressed in some tumor tissues. Although we constructed a prokaryotic expression vector to express rCCK8PE38 in our laboratory, thorough purification was necessary to quantitatively assess its anti‐tumor effect. In this study, we established a purification protocol to obtain rCCK8PE38 with high purity from E. coli. Three different types of chromatography, hydrophobic chromatography, ion exchange chromatography and size exclusion chromatography, were used in combination. The purification technological parameters of each chromatography type were optimized. The whole process of purification was arranged to minimize the purification steps and achieve purity and bioactivity. Finally, through this optimized scheme, we obtained a recombinant protein with a purity of >95%; then, the protein was stored at −80°C after lyophilization. The purified protein was used in a tumor inhibition experiment and was effective in killing tumor cells that over‐expressed choleystokinin B receptor. The results of this study may provide some valuable information about protein purification and lay the foundation for further clinical experiments with rCCK8PE38.     

Rational design of a new one-step purification strategy for Candida antarctica lipase B by ion-exchange chromatography

A fast and efficient one-step method for purification of lipase B from Candida antarctica by ion-exchange chromatography was developed by rational design. The electrostatic properties of the enzyme were calculated and validated by isoelectric focusing and measurement of the titration curve. C. antarctica lipase B shows an unusual pH profile with a broad isoelectric region from pH 4 to 8. At pH 3 C. antarctica lipase B can be bound to a cation-exchange chromatography column and was purified to homogeneity with a purification factor of 2.4. It was stable at pH 3, the residual activity was still 80% after 6 days incubation at 20 degrees C. The broad isoelectric region of C. antarctica lipase B is unique as compared to almost all other alpha/beta-hydrolases which have a well-defined isoelectric point. A search in the lipase engineering database resulted in only one further alpha/beta-hydrolase, the Fusarium solani cutinase, which also has a broad isoelectric region.     

Preparative purification of tetrabromotetrachlorofluorescein and phloxine B by centrifugal counter-current chromatography.

A centrifugal counter-current chromatographic method for preparative purification of commercial tetrabromotetrachlorofluorescein and Phloxine B (D&C Red Nos. 27 and 28, respectively) was developed. Ethyl acetate-n-butanol-0.01 M ammonium acetate (1:1:2) was used as the two-phase solvent system. Each purification trial involved 50 mg of sample and yielded 22 mg (+/- 2 mg) of pure dye. The purity of the product was measured by high-performance liquid and thin-layer chromatography and was found to be 99.9%. The partition coefficients of these compounds were found to be highly concentration-dependent in the two-phase solvent system used. If this problem can be circumvented, then the counter-current chromatographic method can be extended for use with gram quantities of dye.     

Radioimmunoassay for the determination of 2-methoxyestriol concentration in plasma of pregnant women.

A specific assay method has been developed for the determination of 2-methoxyestriol in plasma of pregnant women. The quantitation was achieved by radioimmunoassay after extraction of the plasma with ethyl acetate and purification on a Sephadex LH-20 column. In order to obtain the immunogen for 2-methoxyestriol, 6-oxo-2-methoxyestriol was converted to its 6-(O-carboxymethyl)oxime derivative. The derivative was then coupled to bovine serum albumin by the mixed anhydride method, and rabbits were immunized with this conjugate. The antiserum obtained was partially purified by affinity chromatography on estrone 17-(O-carboxymethyl)oxime-aminohexyl Sepharose conjugate to eliminate the cross-reactive antibodies. Plasma 2-methoxyestriol concentrations in pregnancy were estimated to be mean values of 41.1 pg/ml (12th-14th week), 85.3 pg/ml (27th-29th week), and 97.5 pg/ml (37th-41st week).     

IDA型Cu~(2+):-螯合亲和膜色谱法对牛肝过氧化氢酶纯化的研究(英文):

首次采用以改性纤维素为基质、亚氨二乙酸（ＩＤＡ）为取代配基的铜离子螯合膜色谱法对牛肝过氧化氢酶（ＢＬＣ）的分离纯化进行了研究。缓冲液的ｐＨ值对ＢＬＣ与螯合配基的结合影响显著。在选定的色谱条件下,ＢＬＣ粗酶液经ＩＤＡ型Ｃｕ２＋－螯合膜色谱柱一步纯化,比活性平均提高４．７倍,回收率为６７．７％。金属螯合膜色谱柱可用含０．２ｍｏｌ／Ｌ的咪唑或５０ｍｍｏｌ／ＬＥＤＴＡ－１ｍｏｌ／ＬＮａＣｌ的缓冲液再生,反复使用,后者比前者对柱子的再生效果更好。     

在线单柱二维液相色谱法快速纯化牛胰腺中细胞色素C

用二维（弱阳,疏水）色谱柱首次完成了在线单柱二维液相色谱法快速纯化牛胰腺中的细胞色素C.在将牛胰腺粗提液进样到该二维色谱柱后,在弱阳离子交换模式下,以梯度洗脱方式进行一维色谱分离,并将分离得到的细胞色素C样品液收集到色谱仪的附加样品储液管内.然后将储液管中样品液全部排出,并二次进样到同一根二维色谱柱中,与此同时也完成了对该样品液的缓冲溶液交换,按疏水色谱（HIC）分离模式进行分离.最终对细胞色素C完成了第二维的HIC纯化.上述全部操作均为在线,在一具有正压的封闭体系中进行并可在52分钟内完成.细胞色素C的最终产品纯度高达94.7%（RSD=1.91%）,质量回收率为80.5%（RSD=2.20%）.预计此在线单柱二维液相色谱法也可能用于牛胰腺中其他功能蛋白的快速纯化,并可能将其放大到制备和生产规模.     

Countercurrent chromatographic isolation of lolitrem B from endophyte-infected ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) seed

This paper describes a new method of purification of the Lolitrem B, a tremorgenic mycotoxin produced in planta by the endophytic fungus Neotyphodium lolii. The method is based on the large-scale isolation of the toxin by countercurrent chromatography (CCC). The lolitrem B content in endophyted ryegrass seed, 11 microg/g or 11 ppm, is extracted by stirring finely ground seeds with ethanol for 3 h at room temperature. The concentrated crude extract contains about 0.6 mg/g or 600 ppm of lolitrem B. It is then submitted to CCC purification with a biphasic four-solvent liquid system. A 160-fold enrichment was obtained in one step producing a raffinate containing 10% or 100 mg/g of the toxin. Further purifications were then performed by thin layer and low pressure liquid chromatography. Twenty-eight micrograms of lolitrem B with a 96% purity grade were obtained from 8 kg of seeds (yield 32%).     

Separation of influenza virus‐like particles from baculovirus by polymer‐grafted anion exchanger

The baculovirus expression vector system is a very powerful tool to produce virus‐like particles and gene‐therapy vectors, but the removal of coexpressed baculovirus has been a major barrier for wider industrial use. We used chimeric human immunodeficiency virus‐1 (HIV‐1) gag influenza‐hemagglutin virus‐like particles produced in Tnms42 insect cells using the baculovirus insect cell expression vector system as model virus‐like particles. A fast and simple purification method for these virus‐like particles with direct capture and purification within one chromatography step was developed. The insect cell culture supernatant was treated with endonuclease and filtered, before it was directly loaded onto a polymer‐grafted anion exchanger and eluted by a linear salt gradient. A 4.3 log clearance of baculovirus from virus‐like particles was achieved. The absence of the baculovirus capsid protein (vp39) in the product fraction was additionally shown by high performance liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry. When considering a vaccination dose of 10⁹ particles, 4200 doses can be purified per L pretreated supernatant, meeting the requirements for vaccines with <10 ng double‐stranded DNA per dose and 3.4 µg protein per dose in a single step. The process is simple with a very low number of handling steps and has the characteristics to become a platform for purification of these types of virus‐like particles.     

Visualization of the turkey erythrocyte beta-adrenergic receptor

We have recently described the affinity chromatography purification of the turkey erythrocyte beta-adrenergic receptor. The minute amounts obtained initially precluded extensive biochemical characterization. To improve the yield of the receptor, the erythrocyte membranes have been prepared by a new method. This procedure resulted in a 10-fold higher receptor density in comparison with the membrane preparation used previously. The new membranes also contained a catecholamine-sensitive guanine triphosphatase and an adenylate cyclase sensitive to Gpp(NH)p and l-epinephrine. Solubilization by a double digitonin extraction resulted in a preparation containing 4-6 pmoles of 3H-dihydroalprenolol binding sites per mg of membrane protein. A single step of affinity chromatography on alprenolol-sepharose of the soluble digitonin extract resulted in an additional 1,000-fold purification of the receptor. The overall purification factor was 20,000 relative to the binding activity of the crude membrane preparations. Electrophoresis is SDS-polyacrylamide of iodinated purified beta-receptors revealed, after autoradiography, the presence of four major components. Three of these, corresponding to molecular weights of 170,000, 33,000, and 30,000, respectively, were not affected by reduction with beta-mercaptoethanol and were not observed when the digitonin extracts were loaded on the affinity gel in the presence of an excess of l-propranolol. A fourth 52,000-dalton component (60,000 daltons after reduction with beta-mercaptoethanol) remained apparent even when affinity purification was prevented by addition of l-propranolol. Our results suggest that the beta-adrenergic receptor is composed of at least three subunits that interact by noncovalent bonds.     

Carbon isotopic ratio analysis by gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry for the detection of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) administration to humans

Since GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) is naturally produced in the human body, clinical and forensic toxicologists must be able to discriminate between endogenous levels and a concentration resulting from exposure. To suggest an alternative to the use of interpretative concentration cut-offs, the detection of exogenous GHB in urine specimens was investigated by means of gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS). GHB was isolated from urinary matrix by successive purification on Oasis MCX and Bond Elute SAX solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges prior to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fractioning using an Atlantis dC18 column eluted with a mixture of formic acid and methanol. Subsequent intramolecular esterification of GHB leading to the formation of gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) was carried out to avoid introduction of additional carbon atoms for carbon isotopic ratio analysis. A precision of 0.3 per thousand was determined using this IRMS method for samples at GHB concentrations of 10 mg/L. The (13)C/(12)C ratios of GHB in samples of subjects exposed to the drug ranged from -32.1 to -42.1 per thousand, whereas the results obtained for samples containing GHB of endogenous origin at concentration levels less than 10 mg/L were in the range -23.5 to -27.0 per thousand. Therefore, these preliminary results show that a possible discrimination between endogenous and exogenous GHB can be made using carbon isotopic ratio analyses.     

Purification of recombinant DNA-derived factor IX produced in transgenic pig milk and fractionation of active and inactive subpopulations

Transgenic animal bioreactors can be engineered to make gram per liter quantities of complex recombinant glycoproteins in milk. However, little is known about the limitations in post-translational processing that occurs for very complex proteins and how this impacts the task of purification. We report on the purification of recombinant factor IX (rFIX) from the milk of transgenic pigs having an expression level of 2-3 g rFIX/(l(-1) h(-1)), an expression level that is about 20-fold higher than previously reported. This purification process efficiently recovers highly active rFIX and shows that even complex mixtures like pig milk, which contains 60 g/l total endogenous milk protein and multiple subpopulations of rFIX, can be processed using conventional, non-immunoaffinity chromatographic methods. Without prior removal of caseins, heparin-affinity chromatography was used to first purify the total population of rFIX at greater than 90% yield. After the total population was isolated, the biologically active and inactive subpopulations were fractionated by high-resolution anion exchange chromatography using an ammonium acetate elution. Capillary isoelectric focusing of the active and inactive rFIX fractions demonstrated that the active subpopulations are the most acidic.     

Preparative scale purification of shidasterone, 2-deoxy-polypodine b and 9a,20-dihydroxyecdysone from Silene italica ssp. nemoralis

A suitable combination of preparative scale separation methods results in effective clean-up of the ecdysteroids of Silene italica ssp. nemoralis (Waldst. and Kit.) Nyman. The isolation of minor ecdysteroids from the partially purified extract is based on the use of both droplet counter-current chromatography and low-pressure reversed-phase liquid chromatography. The purification is completed by preparative thin-layer chromatography and preparative high-performance liquid chromatography to obtain the minor ecdysteroids, such as 2-deoxy-20-hydroxyecdysone, shidasterone, 2-deoxy-polypodine B, makisterone C, and 9alpha,20-dihydroxyecdysone.     

An HPLC method for determination of azadirachtin residues in bovine muscle

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the determination of azadirachtin (A and B) residues in bovine muscle has been developed. Azadirachtin is a neutral triterpene and chemotherapeutic agent effective in controlling some pest flies in horses, stables, horns and fruit. The actual HPLC method uses an isocratic elution and UV detection. Liquid-liquid extraction and solid-phase purification was used for the clean-up of the biological matrix. The chromatographic determination of these components is achieved using a C18 analytical column with water-acetonitrile mixture (27.5:72.5, v/v) as mobile phase, 1 mL/min as flow rate, 45 °C column temperature and UV detector at 215 nm. The azadirachtin peaks are well resolved and free of interference from matrix components. The extraction and analytical method developed in this work allows the quantitation of azadirachtin with precision and accuracy, establishing a lower limit of quantitation of azadirachtin, extracted from the biological matrix.