Optimization of a calcium-dependent Protein A-derived domain for mild antibody purification

ABSTRACT

As reported here, we developed and optimized a purification matrix based on a Protein A-derived domain, Z_Ca, displaying calcium-dependent antibody binding. It provides an alternative to the acidic elution conditions of conventional Protein A affinity chromatography for purification of sensitive antibodies and other Fc-based molecules. We describe the multimerization of Z_Ca to generate a chromatography resin with higher binding capacity. The highest order multimeric variant, Z_CaTetraCys, demonstrated a considerably high dynamic binding capacity (35 mg IgG/ml resin) while preserving the specificity for IgG. High recovery was obtained and host cell protein and DNA content in purified fractions proved to be comparable to commercial MabSelect SuRe and MabSelect PrismA. Various elution conditions for use of this domain in antibody purification were investigated. The purification data presented here revealed variations in the interaction of different subclasses of human IgG with Z_CaTetraCys. This resulted in diverse elution properties for the different IgGs, where complete elution of all captured antibody for IgG2 and IgG4 was possible at neutral pH. This optimized protein ligand and the proposed purification method offer a unique strategy for effective and mild purification of antibodies and Fc-fusion proteins that cannot be purified under conventional acidic elution conditions due to aggregation formation or loss of function.     

Protein A immobilized affinity cartridge for immunoglobulin purification

Recombinant Protein A was immobilized on a cellulose and acrylic composite matrix through Schiff base formation. Various factors that could affect the binding of immunoglobulin by the Protein A molecules immobilized on the solid matrix were studied to achieve optimum affinity purification. The spacer arm length and ligand concentration of Protein A were verified as factors crucial to optimized IgG purification. Liquid-phase environmental conditions such as pH and salt concentration also play important roles in adsorption capacity by affecting the molecular interaction between IgG and the immobilized Protein A. The rate of interaction between Protein A and IgG is rather fast, with minimal differences observed at 10-fold increases in the cartridge loading rate. This paper describes a cellulose/acrylic composite matrix for immobilizing Protein A, at an optimized ligand concentration, installed on a spacer arm of adequate length, to purify immunoglobulins from animal plasma. The fast-flow property of the cartridge made from such a matrix and its simplicity in operation provide effective means for purifying immunoglobulins on a relatively large scale.     

Structure of the IgG-binding ligand of the T-gel

We examine the ligand requirements for the divinylsulphone (DVS) based T-gel to bind immunoglobulins. The original gel consisted of 2-mercaptoethanol coupled to a DVS activated support, with both the thioether and sulphone sulphurs thought necessary for protein binding. No differences in the capacity for human IgG were observed for a highly activated gel coupled with mercaptoethanol, or when the same activated gel was incubated at high pH to hydrolyse the majority of its reactive groups before the remainder were coupled with the thiol, indicating that the thioether S may be replaced with a hydroxyl O. Increasing the time of the DVS-activation results in gels with higher concentrations of immobilised sulphone but lower concentrations of active groups. The IgG capacities of the mercaptoethanol coupled gels were found to increase with the time of the activation reaction, which may be exploited to produce high capacity gels while minimising the concentration of DVS. Reducing the vinyl of the DVS-activated gel with borohydride was found to decrease the amount of protein binding, with residual binding being attributed to the presence of hydrolysed or cross-linked sulphones in the gel. Reacting the activated gels with amines decreased the capacity for IgG still further, suggesting that not only are these ligands unable to bind IgG, they also prevent its interacting with neighbouring sulphones, perhaps due to the small amount of positive charge they carry.     

A one step separation of immunoglobulin g from bovine serum by pseudobioaffinity chromatography on histidine grafted to epoxy activated sepharose

The selective adsorption of proteins and macromolecules on activated matrix grafted with histidine has been shown to be dependent on certain separation parameters like, pH and buffer type. In the present study, the significant potential of the histidine ligand to separate bovine IgG from other bovine serum proteins has been demonstrated. The successful separation was carried out by pseudobioaffinty chromatography on histidine grafted-epoxy activated sepharose. The method was applied to sterile bovine serum. Bovine IgG was completely separated in the form of a single peak with 25 mM MES buffer containing 0.2 M NaCl at pH 5. The purity of the separated bovine IgG was determined by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) under reducing conditions. Ouchterlony radial immunodiffusion (ODD) assay showed that bovine IgG was the main component present in the elution fraction.     

Purification of human IgG by negative chromatography on ω-aminohexyl-agarose

The ω-aminohexyl diamine immobilized as ligand on CNBr- and bisoxirane-activated agarose gel was evaluated for the purification of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) from serum and plasma by negative affinity chromatography. The effects of matrix activation, buffer system, and feedstream on recovery and purity of IgG were studied. A one-step purification process using Hepes buffer at pH 6.8 allowed a similar recovery (69–76%) of the loaded IgG in the nonretained fractions for both matrices, but the purity was higher for epoxy-activated gel (electrophoretically homogeneous protein with a 6.5-fold purification). The IgG and human serum albumin (HSA) adsorption equilibrium studies showed that the adsorption isotherms of IgG and HSA obeyed the Langmuir–Freundlich and Langmuir models, respectively. The binding capacity of HSA was high (210.4 mg mL^?1 of gel) and a positive cooperativity was observed for IgG binding. These results indicate that immobilizing ω-aminohexyl using bisoxirane as coupling agent is a useful strategy for rapid purification of IgG from human serum and plasma.     

大孔吸附树脂吸附链霉菌702抗真菌活性物质工艺

研究大孔吸附树脂吸附链霉菌702抗真菌活性物质的工艺条件。采用5种不同大孔吸附树脂吸附链霉菌702发酵液提取液中抗真菌活性物质,选择吸附效果较佳树脂进行吸附条件优化,以桔青霉为指示菌,纳他霉素为对照抗生素．采用“管碟法”测定抗真菌活性物质含量。结果发现,XAD18树脂吸附效果较好,获得优化吸附条件：上样液pH6,NaCl质量浓度10g/L,上样量22．63mg／g湿树脂,吸附流速2．5mL／min,水洗体积180mL,洗脱流速1．5mL／min,洗脱剂为体积分数10％、50％和90％的甲醇,洗脱方式为梯度洗脱。在确定的工艺条件下XAD18对链霉菌702抗真菌活性物质的吸附率可达90％,洗脱率可达75％,回收率可达80％。     

Gum Arabic coated magnetic nanoparticles with affinity ligands specific for antibodies

A novel magnetic support based on gum Arabic (GA) coated iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) has been endowed with affinity properties towards immunoglobulin G (IgG) molecules. The success of the in situ triazine ligand synthesis was confirmed by fluorescence assays. Two synthetic ligands previously developed for binding to IgG, named as ligand 22/8 (artificial Protein A) and ligand 8/7 (artificial Protein L) were immobilized on to MNPs coated with GA (MNP_GA). The dimension of the particles core was not affected by the surface functionalization with GA and triazine ligands. The hydrodynamic diameters of the magnetic supports indicate that the coupling of GA leads to the formation of larger agglomerates of particles with about 1 µm, but the introduction of the triazine ligands leads to a decrease on MNPs size. The non‐functionalized MNP_GA bound 28 mg IgG/g, two times less than bare MNP (60 mg IgG/g). MNP_GA modified with ligand 22/8 bound 133 mg IgG/g support, twice higher than the value obtained for ligand 8/7 magnetic adsorbents (65 mg/g). Supports modified with ligand 22/8 were selected to study the adsorption and the elution of IgG. The adsorption of human IgG on this support followed a Langmuir behavior with a Q_máx of 344 mg IgG/g support and K_a of 1.5 × 10⁵ M. The studies on different elution conditions indicated that although the 0.05 M citrate buffer (pH 3) presented good recovery yields (elution 64% of bound protein), there was occurrence of iron leaching at this acidic pH. Therefore, a potential alternative would be to elute bound protein with a 0.05 M glycine‐NaOH (pH 11) buffer. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Molecular dynamics simulation and experimental validation of the effect of pH on protein desorption in hydrophobic charge induction chromatography

The ligands in hydrophobic charge induction chromatography (HCIC) are hydrophobic and ionisable. Thus, the pH is crucial for the separation performance in HCIC, especially for elution. However, it is difficult to obtain the microscopic information in HCIC through experimental means. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to examine the effect of pH on elution and protein conformational transition in HCIC, using a 46-bead β-barrel coarse-grained model protein and an HCIC adsorbent pore model constructed in an earlier work. Corresponding experiments are carried out for the validation of simulation results, using lysozyme and MEP Hypercel. Both the activities and fluorescence of lysozyme are examined to evaluate the conformational transition. The simulations indicate that the elution efficiency of protein increases with decreasing pH value in a non-linear manner. This is qualitatively consistent with the experimental results. MD simulations indicate that protein unfolding occurs in elution at all pH values. However, the experimental data show that the activity and conformation of lysozyme is independent of pH of the elution buffer. The microscopic information from simulation shows that protein unfolding is mainly observed on the adsorbent surface, but it cannot be detected in the experiments that only probe the proteins in the bulk liquid.     

大孔树脂纯化赶黄草黄酮工艺及体外抗氧化活性

本研究以赶黄草地上部分为材料,研究大孔树脂纯化赶黄草黄酮的工艺,并评价体外抗氧化活性。根据大孔树脂对赶黄草黄酮的吸附和解吸性能,从7种不同类型的大孔树脂中筛选出适宜的树脂,进一步优化其纯化工艺,并比较纯化前后黄酮的体外抗氧化活性。试验结果表明,DM130大孔树脂对赶黄草黄酮有较好的吸附和解吸效果,其最佳纯化工艺参数:上样液黄酮浓度为1.0 mg/mL、pH为5、上样速度为1.0 mL/min、上样量为110 mL、洗脱液为70%乙醇、洗脱速度为1.0 mL/min和洗脱体积为40 mL。该工艺条件下,黄酮的纯度由20.04%提高至43.93%,提高了23.89%,表明DM130树脂对赶黄草黄酮的纯化效果较好。另外,纯化后赶黄草黄酮的DPPH自由基清除能力和还原力均显著提高。     

Affinity separation of immunoglobulin G subclasses on dye attached poly(hydroxypropyl methacrylate) beads

Poly(hydroxypropyl methacrylate) [poly(HPMA)] gel beads with an average size of 150–200 μm were prepared by suspension polymerization of hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA). The poly(HPMA) gel beads were characterized by swelling studies, surface area measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and elemental analysis. Poly(HPMA) gel beads had a specific surface area of 88.6 m²/g. The dye Reactive Green HE 4BD was chemically attached to yield dye-poly(HPMA) gel beads at an average concentration of 44.3 μmol dye/g bead with a swelling ratio of 75%. These dye attached gel beads were used in the separation of immunoglobulin-G (IgG) through adsorption–elution studies. The non-specific adsorption of IgG on the poly(HPMA) gel beads was 0.5 mg/g. The attachment of Reactive Green HE 4BD significantly increased the adsorption of IgG up to 71 mg/g. The Langmuir adsorption model was found to be applicable in interpretation of data pertaining to the adsorption studies of IgG with Reactive Green HE 4BD attached to the poly(HPMA) gel beads. The adsorption of IgG was found to be optimal at pH 7.0. The adsorption of IgG was observed to decrease by about 76% as the NaCl concentration was increased from 0.001 to 0.1 M. The IgG adsorption capacity of the dye attached poly(HPMA) gel beads was determined for a commercially available IgG solution to be 4.2 mg/g for IgG₁, 64.5 mg/g for IgG₂, 7.1 mg/g for IgG₃ and 10.8 mg/g for IgG₄. The Reactive Green HE 4BD attached poly(HPMA) gel beads have a significant adsorption capacity for IgG₂. The quantity of adsorbed IgG₂ is three times higher than the quantity of the other subclasses, IgG₁, IgG₃ and IgG₄. A similar adsorption behaviour was observed when the albumin free human plasma was used. The quantity of adsorbed IgG₂ is higher than the quantity of the other subclasses, IgG₁, IgG₃ and IgG₄. Adsorption capacities for albumin free human plasma were obtained as 6.4 mg/g for IgG₁, 67.8 mg/g for IgG₂, 5.2 mg/g for IgG₃ and 8.6 mg/g for IgG₄. Significant amount of the adsorbed IgG (up to 95%) was eluted in 1 h in the elution medium containing 2.0 M NaCl. Repeated adsorption/elution processes showed that these dye attached gel beads are suitable for IgG adsorption.     

2-Mercapto-5-benzimidazolesulfonic acid: an effective multimodal ligand for the separation of antibodies

The report describes the use of 2-mercapto-5-benzimidazolesulfonic acid (MBISA) as a ligand for the separation of antibodies by chromatography. The ligand shows a relatively specific adsorption property for antibodies from very crude biologicals at pH 5.0-5.5. At this pH range most of other proteins do not interact with the resin especially when the ionic strength is similar to physiological conditions. Several characterization studies are described such as antibody adsorption in different conditions of ionic strength, pH and temperature. These properties are advantageously used to selectively capture antibodies from very crude feed stocks without dilution or addition of lyotropic salts. Demonstration was made that the adsorption mechanism is neither based on ion exchange nor on hydrophobic associations, but rather as an assembly of a variety of properties of the ligand itself. Binding capacity in the described conditions ranges between 25 and 30 mg/mL of resin. The sorbent does not co-adsorb albumin (Alb) and seems compatible with a large variety of feedstocks. Quantitative antibody desorption occurs when the pH is raised above 8.5. The final purity of the antibody depends on the nature of the feedstock, and can reach levels of purity as high as 98%. Even with very crude biological liquids such as ascites fluids, cell culture supernatants and Chon fraction II + III from human plasma fractionation where the number of protein impurities is particularly large, immunoglobumins G (IgG) were separated at high purity level in a single step.     

Sulfone-aromatic ligands for thiophilic adsorption chromatography: purification of human and mouse immunoglobulins.

New thiophilic matrices and new procedures were used for the purification of immunoglobulins both from human serum and from hybridoma cell cultures containing fetal calf serum. A range of aromatic and heteroaromatic ligands containing hydroxyl or amino groups have been coupled to divinyl sulfone-activated agarose. The resulting affinity matrices have the general formula M-O-CH2-CH2-SO2-CH2-CH2-X-Y, where M is the agarose matrix, X is oxygen or nitrogen, and Y is an aromatic or heteroaromatic compound. Contrary to earlier expectations these matrices showed pronounced thiophilic binding patterns when tested for the selective binding of immunoglobulins from human serum. The binding is influenced by the structure of the aromatic part of the ligand, the ligand concentration, and the concentration and type of lyotropic salt. 2-Hydroxypyridine coupled to divinyl sulfone-activated agarose was used to purify murine monoclonal antibodies (IgG1 and IgM) from hybridoma cell cultures containing fetal calf serum. Compared to previous methods, significantly increased binding capacity (300-1500%) was obtained by using 1.0-1.2 M ammonium sulfate. Purity of the monoclonal antibody may be optimized for each individual clone by washing the column with either a low concentration of ammonium sulfate or polyethylene glycol before elution.     

大孔树脂分离纯化辣椒叶总黄酮的工艺研究

目的:筛选适合分离纯化辣椒叶总黄酮的一种大孔树脂,同时用响应面法进行优化得到最佳纯化工艺。方法:采用热回流法提取辣椒叶总黄酮,以吸附率和解吸率为考察指标,考察6种不同型号的大孔树脂(HPD100、HPD450、HPD600、HPD826、D101、AB-8)对辣椒叶总黄酮的吸附能力与解吸能力,确定最佳树脂。通过动态吸附解吸实验考察此树脂对辣椒叶总黄酮的最佳分离纯化工艺。结果:通过对辣椒叶总黄酮吸附分离性能的分析显示HPD600为最佳树脂,最优工艺为:上样浓度为10 mg/mL,上样量为10 mL,洗脱体积为4 BV,洗脱液流速为4 mL/min,洗脱液pH为7,依次用水、10%、30%乙醇冲洗树脂柱,50%乙醇为洗脱液。纯化后的黄酮纯度435.4 mg/g。结论:该方法简便,操作简单,对辣椒叶总黄酮的纯化效果较好。     

Affinity purification of penicillin acylase on phenylacetic acid linked to Indion 48-R: Effect of spacer variation

Summary Affinity matrices, obtained by coupling the ligand phenylacetic acid to Indion 48-R (a racroporous cross linked polystyrene anion exchange resin) through varying spacers, were used to purify penicillin acylase (PA). Homogenous enzyme preparations could be obtained in a single step with over 85% recovery. The effect of spacer variations on the adsorption and elution behaviour of PA is discussed.     

Lipase purification by affinity precipitation with a thermo-responsive polymer immobilized Cibacron Blue F3GA ligand

A thermo-responsive polymer (P_NNB) was synthesized with lower critical solution temperature 27.5°C and over 95% recovery. The adsorption of porcine pancreatic lipase on Cibacron Blue F3GA-conjugated P_NNB (P_NNB-CB) closely followed the bi-Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity was found at pH 5.0, with a ligand density of 18.4 μmol/g polymers. The optimized eluent was a 0.01 M phosphate buffer solution at pH 8.0 containing 20% ethylene glycol. Six adsorptiondesorption recycles indicated excellent reusability of the affinity adsorbent. P_NNB-CB was applied to separate porcine pancreatic lipase from its crude material giving a lipase activity recovery of 81.6% with a 16-fold purification factor. Lipase could be purified to single-band purity, according to gel electrophoresis. The purification strategy is therefore feasible and efficient for purifying proteins of interest.     

吸附层析分离麻黄生物碱的过程优化

研究了用吸附层析取代现有的二甲苯萃取麻黄生物碱的工艺,重点考察了洗脱剂和操作条件对产品纯度和回收率的影响,发现在树脂吸附后的洗脱中,0．08M草酸的洗脱率最高,达99．3％,纯化倍数大于20;在操作条件中,进料量、pH和料液在层析柱中的停留时间影响最大：进料量增大导致纯度和收率的下降,树脂的动态吸附容量为27．5mg／mL树脂;停留时间在20rain时纯度较高,而洗脱率随停留时间减少却略有下降;pH=10时吸附性能较好。     

离子交换法纯化α-淀粉酶抑制剂

采用离子交换法,利用弱碱性阴离子交换树脂D315吸附小麦粉初提液中的α-淀粉酶抑制剂,对其静态吸附以及洗杂洗脱条件进行研究。通过对静态吸附条件的摸索,得出静态下的最佳工艺条件:上样料液的蛋白质量浓度ρ0=2.5~3.5 mg/mL、pH=8.5~9.5、温度t=30℃、转速150 r/min。最佳洗脱条件:0.1 mol/L NaCl洗杂,0.5mol/L NaCl洗脱。在该条件下,α-淀粉酶抑制剂纯化倍数为4.25倍,收率为64.58%。     

A novel core fractionation process of human plasma by expanded bed adsorption chromatography

Current plasma fractionation technology combines ethanol precipitation with packed bed chromatography. We have developed a novel core fractionation process comprising five expanded bed adsorption (EBA) chromatographic steps on high-density modified agarose/tungsten carbide beads. Plasma was first chromatographed on two diethyl amino-ethyl (DEAE)-tungsten carbide agarose adsorbents (respective mean particle diameters of d_v(0.5) = 190 and 37 μm) to isolate at 50 to 80% recovery a fraction containing 4 to 7 IU/ml factor II (FII), factor IX (FIX), and factor X (FX) (specific activity >1 IU/mg) and another enriched in FVIII and von Willebrand factor (vWF) (∼1 IU/ml and 0.6 IU/mg, respectively). The flow-through was adsorbed on 4% agarose-10% tungsten carbide beads coupled with an acidic mixed-mode ligand to isolate an 80% pure immunoglobulin G (IgG) at a 93% step recovery. A highly purified α1-antitrypsin was isolated at 95% step recovery by adsorbing the flow-through on 4% epoxy-crosslinked agarose-10% tungsten carbide adsorbent material coupled with a cationic ligand. Isolation of 98% pure albumin was achieved at a 99% step recovery by pH 4.5 adsorption of the flow-through on 6% agarose-10% tungsten carbide beads coupled with an acidic mixed-mode ligand. EBA may represent a feasible alternative core plasma fractionation tool.     

Capture of human monoclonal antibodies from a clarified cell culture supernatant by phenyl boronate chromatography

In this work, we investigated the feasibility of using phenyl boronate (PB) chromatography for the direct capture of monoclonal antibodies from a CHO cell supernatant. Preliminary results, using pure protein solutions have shown that PB media can bind to human antibodies, not only at strong alkaline conditions but also at acidic pH values. In fact, antibodies have been found to bind in the pH range 5.5-8.5. On the other hand, insulin and human serum albumin did not bind at alkaline pH but at lower pH, which reflects the importance of non-specific interactions with the matrix. Different binding and eluting buffers were evaluated for the capture of immunoglobulin G (IgG) from a CHO cell supernatant and the most promising results were obtained using 20 mM 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid at pH 8.5 as binding buffer and 1.5 M Tris-HCl as eluting buffer. Using a step elution, all IgG was recovered in the elution pool with a maximum purification factor of 56. A gradient elution allowed a further increase of the final purity, yet achieving a slightly lower yield. IgG recovery was around 85% and the purification factor was 76. The highest purity was obtained when the pH of the cell supernatant feed was previously adjusted to 8.5. Starting from an initial protein purity of 1.1% and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) purity of 2.2%, after PB adsorption, a final protein purity of 85% and a HPLC purity of 88% was achieved.     

Antibody variable region interactions with Protein A: implications for the development of generic purification processes

In this paper, a wide range of antibodies from various subclasses and subfamilies are employed to evaluate the creation of generic separation processes using Protein A chromatography. The reasons for elution pH differences amongst several IgG1s, IgG2s, antibody fragments, and Fc-fusion proteins during Protein A chromatography are investigated using several complimentary techniques. The results indicate that variable region interactions play a major role in determining elution pH for VH3 subfamily antibodies while using traditional protein A chromatographic materials. On the other hand, experiments with a resin which employs a ligand consisting solely of B domain of Protein A indicate that variable region interactions can be mitigated, enabling the use of a single elution pH for a range of antibodies. Finally, the moderation of elution conditions associated with this engineered ligand are shown to minimize problems associated with low pH induced aggregation. It is expected that the findings reported in this paper will facilitate faster process development cycle times for this important class of human therapeutics.