Preparative purification of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein synthetic polypeptides by displacement chromatography

One-step purification of palmatine and its derivative dl-tetrahydropalmatine from Enantia chlorantha using high-performance displacement chromatography

Palmatine and its reduced form, dl-tetrahydropalmatine are a group of isoquinoline alkaloids that have been reported to display a variety of biological and pharmacological activities. Both drugs are hydrophilic and are difficult to be purified by conventional purification methods of natural products. A high-performance displacement chromatography (HPDC) method successfully purified palmatine and its semi-synthetic derivative dl-tetrahydropalmatine from crude extract of the African medicinal plant Enantia chlorantha. The crude extract from the root bark of E. chlorantha was fractionated on an analytical reversed-phase C(18) column by using 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) or acetic acid/H2O as a carrier and cetylpyridinium trifluoroacetate (or acetate) (1.9mg/mL) in 0.1% TFA (or acetic acid)/H2O as a displacer. Palmatine was quantitatively purified at >98% purity in the fully developed displacement mode. dl-Tetrahydropalmatine was semi-synthesized by NaBH4 reduction from crude palmatine and directly purified by HPDC. Both palmatine and dl-tetrahydropalmatine were identified by high-resolution electrospray tandem mass spectrometry, (1)H NMR and (13)C NMR. This is the first report of one-step HPDC purification of natural and semi-synthetic products from a complex crude extract.

Chromatographic purification of some 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors

The purification of pravastatin, simvastatin and lovastatin in the sodium salt or lactone form and of mevastatin in the lactone form by reversed-phase displacement chromatography is presented. The mobile phases consisted of water or mixtures of water-methanol and water-acetonitrile. Six different displacers were successfully used. Up to 0.14 g of raw sample per gram of stationary phase was loaded on a column packed with silica-based octadecyl phase. Crude substances from 85 to 88% chromatographic purity were purified and at least 99.5% purity was achieved.

Conformational study of a short Pertussis toxin T cell epitope incorporated in a multiple antigen peptide template by CD and two-dimensional NMR. Analysis of the structural effects on the activity of synthetic immunogens

The immunogenic efficacy of multiple antigen peptides, MAPs, i.e. branched molecules in which multiple copies of a given immunogenic peptide are attached on a scaffold of lysine residues via both alpha and epsilon linkages, has been repeatedly demonstrated, but little is known about the structural arrangement of these peptide constructs. A conformational characterization was therefore performed for a known T cell epitope of the S1 subunit of Pertussis toxin, whose sequence is predicted to form alpha-helix. The peptide DNVLDHLTGR, its N-acetylated and C-amidated analogue and a tetrabranched MAP based on the N-acetylated peptide were prepared and studied by CD and two-dimensional 1H-NMR. No evidence of helical structure was obtained in water for the isolated peptides. In contrast, in triflouroethanol, the isolated epitopes fold into a helical structure spanning the segment Val3-Thr8 in the uncapped molecule and encompassing also the N-terminal region in the capped analogue. The mobile C-terminal region tends to adopt a distorted turn arrangement in both peptides due to the folding of Arg10 guanidinium over the backbone. No distortion of the helix structure was observed for the single-copy epitope in the four-branched MAP molecule in trifluoroethanol: each peptide chain is equivalent within the MAP and shows an even more regular helical pattern than the isolated end-blocked sequence. A slight difference was located at the junction with the lysine scaffold: the peptide bond to epsilon NH was found in a much more extended conformation than the corresponding link to alpha NH. These structural results correlate with in vitro T cell stimulatory activity of the three compounds examined and provide arguments supporting the previous suggestion that MAP tetramers are unlikely to elicit an immune response specific for the synthetic template assembly, a feature necessary to retain the advantage of the polymeric epitope presentation.

Preparative chromatography in biotechnology

The field of preparative chromatography has experienced several important advances recently in both the structure of chromatographic materials and modes of chromatographic operation. This review presents recent applications of preparative chromatography in biotechnology, as well as novel stationary phase materials and engineering approaches to preparative chromatographic bioseparations.

Large-scale purification of the synthetic peptide fragment 163-171 of human interleukin-beta by multi-dimensional displacement chromatography

Multi-dimensional chromatography has been used successfully in the displacement mode for the purification of the synthetic peptide H-Val-Gln-Gly-Glu-Glu-Ser-Asn-Asp-Lys-OH, the fragment 163-171 of human interleukin-beta. This peptide can mimic several of the in vivo and in vitro immunostimulatory activities of the entire protein, except for the inflammatory effect. A large-scale procedure has been developed to purify the synthetic peptide by reversed-phase (RP) and ion-exchange (IE) displacement chromatography (DC) in a single run without any pretreatment. Masses from 100 mg to about 35 g of the unpurified compounds synthesized by a solid-phase technique on a Merrifield-type resin and obtained by acidolytic cleavage from the solid support, can be purified in this way. In the RP-DC mode the carrier and the displacer were aqueous solutions of 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid and 50 mM benzyltributylammonium chloride, respectively, whereas in the IE-DC mode the carrier was water and the displacer 50 mM ammonium citrate solution. RP-DC and IE-DC were also performed in series by directing the effluent of the RP column onto the IE column. Peptide purities and recoveries greater than 96 and 90%, respectively, were obtained.

Synthetic peptides for Plasmodium vivax malaria sero-epidemiology. Application of Fmoc-polyamide and displacement chromatography

The immunodominant epitope of Plasmodium vivax, one of the major causative agents of malaria in man, consists of the tandem repetitions of a nonapeptide sequence, AspArgAlaAsp/AlaGlyGlnProAlaGly, with Asp (variant d) or Ala (variant a), in the fourth position. Synthetic peptides corresponding to the P. vivax epitope, containing a different number of nonapeptide sequences, were prepared by solid-phase synthesis according to the Fmoc-polyamide method. Three peptides, containing 1, 2, and 4 copies of the d variant, were assembled on the gel polymer; none of these peptides, however, was suitable for P. vivax sero-epidemiology. A 45-peptide containing both the d and a variants, ddaad, was prepared by continuous-flow Fmoc-polyamide (flow-polyamide). Among the cleavage procedures evaluated for the removal of the five Mtr groups only TFMSA/TFA/1,2-ethanedithiol (1:89:10 by vol) brought deblocking to completion; a substantial level of impurities originated, however, from these procedures. The product was purified by reversed-phase displacement chromatography, a technique only recently applied to peptides, which shows distinct advantages over conventional, linear elution chromatography. In a single experiment, 107 mg of the crude mixture were loaded onto an analytical column (250 x 4 mm), obtaining in purified form 85% of the desired material present in the sample. An ELISA test base on the ddaad peptide was developed and is being applied to the sero-epidemiology of P. vivax malaria.