Primary Purification Step Research Articles

Extraction of hydroxycinnamic acids (ferulic and p-coumaric) from rice straw alkaline black liquor using Pluronic F-127 for potential applications in the cosmetics industry

In the present study, ferulic (FA) and p-coumaric (pCA) acids were extracted from rice straw (Oryza sativa) alkaline black liquor by an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) based on cloud point of surfactant/copolymer Pluronic F-127 (PF-127). An acid precipitation process was studied as a primary purification step of FA and pCA and next, an extraction of these hydroxycinnamic acids (HAs) using PF-127 in different concentrations (1.1–17.3% w/w) was performed. The results showed that in PF-127 concentration of 9.4% w/w, yield extractions of 75.8% for FA and 74.3% for pCA were achieved. In addition, FA and pCA were concentrated 2.3 and 2.5-fold, respectively, compared to their original concentrations in the liquor, resulting in a PF-127 gel containing 0.12% w/w HAs. This material will be further investigated for potential applications in the cosmetics industry as an alternative for obtaining high value-added products in a rice straw-based biorefinery. Data availabilityData will be made available on request.

Recombinant expression of Barnase in Escherichia coli and its application in plasmid purification

BackgroundThe use of bovine-origin ribonucleases has been part of the standard protocol for plasmid DNA purification. As the field of gene therapy now enters the clinical stage, such enzymes need to be phased out or alternative purification protocols need to be developed to ensure product safety and regulatory compliance. The recombinant expression of bacterial RNase is fraught with toxicity problems making it a challenging enzyme to express. The current study describes a plasmid construct that allowed expression of barnase in Escherichia coli under co-expression of its native inhibitor barstar.ResultsThe pure enzyme without the inhibitor barstar was exported to the extracellular space through the periplasm and then purified from the cell-free supernatant. Cation exchange chromatography was employed as a primary purification step. This was followed by hydrophobic interaction chromatography which resulted in a concentrated fraction of active enzyme. Although current levels of volumetric activity achieved are quite meagre (4 Kunitz units mL− 1), in principle its application to plasmid DNA purification could be proved. Currently, this is capable of processing small amounts (13 g) of bacterial biomass for plasmid production.ConclusionsThe current work focusses on the downstream purification strategies for a recombinant RNase and sets a framework for higher scale production if specific productivity is increased by optimal hosts and/or re-engineered plasmids. Also important is to curtail the massive enzyme loss during purification by cation exchange chromatography. Application of even a relatively small amount of recombinant RNase would contribute to greatly reducing the initial RNA levels in alkaline lysates thereby augmenting further downstream plasmid purification steps.

Получение и очистка рекомбинантного домена III альфа-фетопротеина человека

Previous studies have demonstrated the applicability of alpha-fetoprotein or its receptor-binding domain fused to the 6-histidine tag at the C-terminus (rAFP3D-His6) as vectors for targeted delivery of antitumor agents. This tag is undesirable for further preclinical trials. Therefore, we designed a recombinant protein rAFP3D without any affine tags, and accessed its functional activity. The protein was produced as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. Optimal conditions for washing inclusion bodies and refolding the target protein were selected. We used a saturated solution of (NH4)2SO4 as the primary purification step to precipitate the main fraction of protein admixtures. The second purification step included hydrophobic chromatography using butyl-cellulose. The identity of the protein sequence was confirmed by tandem mass spectrometry. Circular dichroism demonstrated the authenticity of the secondary structure. Fluorescently labeled rAFP3D actively penetrated into MCF-7 tumor cells. These results indicate that rAFP3D can be used for targeted drug delivery. Key words: alpha-fetoprotein, receptor-binding domain, recombinant protein, MALDI-MS, HPLC, drug delivery system Funding - The project was supported with Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 18-29-09022/20).

An alternative downstream process based on aqueous two-phase extraction for the purification of monoclonal antibodies

An alternative downstream process for the purification of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) based on aqueous two-phase extraction as clarification, capture and primary purification step was developed. For further purification unit operations which are commonly used for mAb platform processes were utilized. A diafiltration approach was used to combine virus inactivation and removal of phase forming components as well as low molecular weight impurities in one step followed by cation and anion exchange chromatography. Starting from cell containing cultivation broth, an overall mAb yield of 74 % was achieved within an application study. The process was optimized regarding mAb yield and the clearance of process related impurities like deoxyribonucleic acid as well as host cell proteins, which were removed to approximately 60 and 6000 ppm respectively. Critical product quality attributes, regarding glycosylation patterns, were also examined and remained unimpaired after the aqueous two-phase extraction. The alternative downstream process presented in this study offers great potential to improve mAb manufacturing.

Economic and environmental analysis of PHAs production process

Following the growing demand to improve both economic and environmental performance of PHAs production, the research focused on the evaluation of the economic and environmental performance of PHAs production process via aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE). Thus, the process analysis of two processes with different PHAs purification and recovery strategies (which are with and without thermoseparating ATPE as primary purification step) was performed. Using the basis of 9000 tons PHAs production per year and 7920 operating hours, the process with thermoseparating ATPE as primary purification step standout in terms of both economic and environmental performance. PHA production cost of 5.77 US$/kg with a payback period of fewer than 4 years and ROI of 25.2% was achieved. The results showed that most of operating cost is contributed by facility-dependent cost and raw material cost, while the main contributor to raw material cost is carbon source. The insight from sensitivity analysis has demonstrated that the economic performance is sensitive to the fluctuation in surfactant cost. This proved that utilizing thermoseparating ATPE as primary recovery step not only helps to reduce chemical consumption, it also minimizes downstream equipment cost and wastewater treatment cost.

Ammonium chloride: a novel effective and inexpensive salt solution for phycocyanin extraction from Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis

Phycocyanin, a blue pigment, is a type of phycobiliproteins. Because of its various potential properties, phycocyanin is applied to various fields, such as nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, medicine, cosmetics, and biotechnological research. The cost and application of phycocyanin are highly dependent on its purity index. In this study, ammonium chloride is presented as a novel, effective, and inexpensive salt for phycocyanin extraction. Compared with sodium phosphate, which is commonly used during phycocyanin extraction process, ammonium chloride solution efficiently extracted phycocyanin with high purity from Arthrospira platensis FACHB-314. In addition, ammonium phosphate solution is also presented as an alternative precipitation agent in phycocyanin purification that may replace the widely used ammonium sulfate. Statistical analysis shows that there is no significant difference in phycocyanin concentration between crude extracts (overall mean of 0.208 and 0.215 for extraction using sodium phosphate and ammonium chloride, respectively). However, the difference in phycocyanin purity ratio (A620/A280) between these two extractions is significant (overall mean of 0.742 and 1.428 for extraction using sodium phosphate and ammonium chloride, respectively). With ammonium chloride, the purity indexes of phycocyanin are 1.5 and 2.81 after the optimum extraction step, and precipitation used as the primary purification step, respectively. The present study describes a novel purification method to achieve phycocyanin with analytical grade without multiple purification steps.

A simple and efficient purification platform for monoclonal antibody production based on chromatin-directed cell culture clarification integrated with precipitation and void-exclusion anion exchange chromatography

Protein A affinity chromatography, featured by its robustness and high-specificity, is still dominant as a first capture step for the purification of immunoglobulin G monoclonal antibodies (IgG mAbs). However, the material and operational costs of protein A are universally recognized as high, and its productivity is also limited as column mode. In order to overcome these limitations, industry is increasingly considering the use of non-protein A-based processes for IgG purification. In this study, sodium citrate precipitation (SCP) was developed as the primary purification step, and chromatin-directed cell culture clarification was demonstrated to significantly elevate the purification capability. Additional 0.05% (w/v) of Tween 20 was shown to effectively reduce the residual free antibody light chain (LC) during precipitation. The resuspended IgG was further polished by void-exclusion anion exchange chromatography (VEAX), which supported protein loading without buffer adjustment. The non-histone host cell protein (nh-HCP) content in the final product was about 5ppm and histone HCP below limit of detection (LOD). DNA was reduced to less than 1ppb, and aggregates/free LC less than 0.1%. The overall IgG recovery was 87.2%. A simple and efficient purification platform with only one-column step was therefore established, providing a more promising alternative to the current prevailing protein A-based purification platforms.

Purification of equine whole IgG snake antivenom by using an aqueous two phase system as a primary purification step

There is a need to introduce innovations in the manufacture of snake antivenoms to increase the supply of these products worldwide. In this work, the fractionation of equine hyperimmune plasma with a new methodology that includes an aqueous two phase system (ATPS) as a primary purification step was compared with the traditional method of caprylic acid precipitation. Hyperimmune plasma from horses immunized with the venoms of three snakes from sub-Saharan Africa was used as starting material for the production of both formulations. After being adjusted to the same lethal neutralizing activity, both antivenoms were compared in terms of their immunoreactivity, neutralization of in vitro venom activities, physicochemical characteristics, and stability. Their performance in terms of yield and purity was also assessed. The neutralization profile of in vitro enzymatic activities and the immunoreactivity, analyzed by ELISA and antivenomic approaches, were very similar for both preparations. Likewise, they behaved similarly in stability studies. However, ATPS-fractionated antivenom showed improved physicochemical profile and immunochemical purity and yield, mainly owing to its lower protein content. Additionally, this methodology allowed the recovery of albumin as a byproduct. ATPS purification constitutes a promising technology for antivenom production and should be further evaluated at preclinical and clinical levels.

Novel peptide ligand with high binding capacity for antibody purification

Small synthetic ligands for protein purification have become increasingly interesting with the growing need for cheap chromatographic materials for protein purification and especially for the purification of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Today, Protein A-based chromatographic resins are the most commonly used capture step in mAb down stream processing; however, the use of Protein A chromatography is less attractive due to toxic ligand leakage as well as high cost. Whether used as an alternative to the Protein A chromatographic media or as a subsequent polishing step, small synthetic peptide ligands have an advantage over biological ligands; they are cheaper to produce, ligand leakage by enzymatic degradation is either eliminated or significantly reduced, and they can in general better withstand cleaning in place (CIP) conditions such as 0.1M NaOH. Here, we present a novel synthetic peptide ligand for purification of human IgG. Immobilized on WorkBeads, an agarose-based base matrix from Bio-Works, the ligand has a dynamic binding capacity of up to 48mg/mL and purifies IgG from harvest cell culture fluid with purities and recovery of >93%. The binding affinity is ∼105M−1 and the interaction is favorable and entropy-driven with an enthalpy penalty. Our results show that the binding of the Fc fragment of IgG is mediated by hydrophobic interactions and that elution at low pH is most likely due to electrostatic repulsion. Furthermore, we have separated aggregated IgG from non-aggregated IgG, indicating that the ligand could be used both as a primary purification step of IgG as well as a subsequent polishing step.

Precipitation of filamentous bacteriophages for their selective recovery in primary purification

Filamentous bacteriophages and their derivatives are showing great promise as a whole new class of industrial agents, such as biologically based nano-materials and viral vectors. This raises challenges for their large-scale manufacture, principally due to the lack of bioprocessing knowledge. This article addresses what will be a potentially important option in the primary purification of the bacteriophages. Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-salt dual precipitants, calcium ions, spermidine, and isoelectric precipitation were first examined for their potential suitability for bacteriophage concentration under both pure and broth conditions. Successful precipitants were further studied on the basis of their selective purification ability from DNA and protein contaminants in a clarified broth system. Both PEG-based and isoelectric precipitations resulted in bacteriophage purity improvements, and PEG-based precipitations offered the highest selectivities. This work shows that precipitation of bacteriophages can be an effective primary purification step in a large-scale bioprocess.

Turnip (Brassica rapa) Peroxidase: Purification and Characterization

Partial purification of plant peroxidase from turnip (Brassica rapa) was optimized. Aqueous two phase system and precipitation by ammonium sulfate (as two parallel purification methods) were used. Polyethylene glycol/ammonium sulfate/NaCl (25:7:3%, w/v) system followed by gel-filtration chromatography gave a purification factor of about 36 fold. On the other hand, ammonium sulfate precipitation (60−80% deg) followed by gel filtration gave only about 13 purification fold. Hence, the aqueous two-phase system was more efficient and useful method as a primary purification step since it was less laborious, less time-consuming, and led to more purification factor. The partially purified turnip enzyme was stable at a pH range 2.6−6.0 and had an optimum pH at 4.0. The enzyme was stable up to 55 °C with an optimum activity at 35 °C.

Purification ofAspergillus carbonarius polygalacturonase using polymeric membranes

BACKGROUND: Microfiltration (MF: 70–450 nm) and ultrafiltration (UF: 10–500 kDa) membranes were used to eliminate carbohydrates and other non-protein impurities from Aspergillus carbonarius culture broth containing polygalacturonase enzyme (EC 3.2.1.15) that would otherwise interfere with the purification processes and lead to enzyme loss. Further, diafiltration was attempted to improve the elimination of impurities as well as recovery of enzymes. RESULTS: MF resulted in removal of 2–25% carbohydrates with an enzyme recovery of 69–82% from the crude culture broth owing to the secondary layer formation. UF with 10 kDa membrane eliminated most of the carbohydrates (96%), phosphate salts and total acids with a recovery of 96% polygalacturonase and resulted in greater productivity. Using the above procedure, the enzyme was concentrated nearly 10-fold while the purity improved from 4.6 to 49.4 U mg−1 of dry matter. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study focused on the elimination of carbohydrates and other non-protein impurities showed that UF could be used efficiently as a primary purification step during downstream processing of microbial culture broths containing enzymes. The present approach will ensure complete elimination of non-protein impurities thereby reducing the losses and difficulties in the subsequent purification steps. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry

Reverse micellar extraction of bromelain from Ananas comosus L. Merryl

AbstractBACKGROUND: A reverse micellar system (RMS) of ionic surfactants is used for the first time for the extraction and primary purification of fruit bromelain (EC 3.4.22.33) from the aqueous extract of pineapple (Ananas comosus L. Merryl). The effect of various process parameters on both forward and back extraction of bromelain is studied to improve the extraction efficiency of RMS. Most of the reverse micellar extraction (RME) studies reported so far are on model systems and its application to enzyme extraction from a natural source is rarely reported.RESULTS: Studies carried out with ionic surfactants sodium bis(2‐ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) confirmed that electrostatic interaction was the main driving force for the extraction of fruit bromelain. Among the two surfactants studied, CTAB was found to be the most suitable for the extraction of fruit bromelain with respect to activity recovery (97.56%) and degree of purification (4.54 fold) when employed as a 150 mmol L−1 CTAB/iso‐octane/5% (v/v) hexanol/15% (v/v) butanol system. Activity recovery with a counterionic system is higher (94.30%) in comparison with isopropyl alcohol added system (85.35%).CONCLUSION: RME could be used as an efficient primary purification step for the recovery of bromelain from pineapple juice. Reverse micellar phase components can easily be recovered and efficiently reused for fresh or subsequent extraction, which contributes favorably to the process economics and environmental issues. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry

Carboxymethyl cellulose as a new heterobifunctional ligand carrier for affinity precipitation of proteins.

Affinity precipitation is a technique that imparts selectivity to the widely used primary purification step of precipitation of proteins from crude extracts. Hetero-bifunctional affinity precipitation involves use of reversibly soluble/insoluble polymers that can be used as backbones to conjugate affinity ligands for specific separations. A variety of such polymers have been reported in literature. In this work we report development of carboxymethyl cellulose (CM cellulose) as a cheap, readily available and versatile reversibly soluble polymer system. Available CM cellulose as sodium salt could be quantitatively precipitated from its aqueous solution in presence of about 50 mM calcium and 7.2% w/v polyethylene glycol-4000, and could be resolubilised in the working buffer in absence of calcium, polyethylene glycol or both. Effectiveness of the CM cellulose-calcium-polyethylene glycol system was demonstrated by purifying lactate dehydrogenase from porcine muscle extract using covalently conjugated Cibacron blue dye-ligand. By careful choice of conditions that suppressed non-specific interactions, the system was shown to be an effective affinity precipitation polymer system inspite of the polyelectrolytic nature of CM cellulose. Up to 23 fold purification of the enzyme from crude extarct was obtained in one single precipitation sequence.

Purification of a DNA polymerase-DNA primase complex from calf thymus glands.

An immunoabsorbent column, prepared by covalently linking mouse monoclonal anti-calf thymus DNA polymerase-alpha to Protein A-Sepharose, was used as the primary purification step for rapid isolation of DNA polymerase-alpha from calf thymus-gland extracts. In a 4-step procedure consisting of the removal of nucleic acids by protamine sulfate precipitation, chromatography on the immunoabsorbent column, desalting on Sephadex G-50, and removal of bovine immunoglobulins on Protein A-Sepharose, DNA polymerase-alpha activity was purified about 5000-fold from the crude extract with greater than 40% recovery of total enzyme activity. The antibody column-purified DNA polymerase-alpha fraction contains a DNA primase activity that is efficient in replication of single-stranded DNA and poly(dT) when rNTPs are included in the replication reactions. Synthesis by calf thymus DNA polymerase-primase is totally dependent on added template. Complete replication of circular single-stranded phage DNA is achieved with polymerase-primase producing a nicked circular DNA containing oligoribonucleotide primer in the final product. Primers synthesized with single-stranded phage DNA as template were up to 10 nucleotides long when dNTPs were omitted from the reaction and 8 or less nucleotides long when dNTPs were present. Primers synthesized using poly(dT) consisted of three populations when dATP was absent from the reaction, averaging 20 nucleotides, 10 nucleotides, and 3-4 nucleotides. The 20-nucleotide population was not found when dATP was included in the reaction.