Expression of caltrin in the baculovirus system and its purification in high yield and purity by cobalt (II) affinity chromatography

A fully automated procedure for the parallel, multidimensional purification and nucleotide loading of the human GTPases KRas, Rac1 and RalB

Small GTPases regulate many key cellular processes and their role in human disease validates many proteins in this class as desirable targets for therapeutic intervention. Reliable recombinant production of GTPases, often in the active GTP loaded state, is a prerequisite for the prosecution of drug discovery efforts. The preparation of these active forms can be complex and often constricts the supply to the reagent intensive techniques used in structure base drug discovery. We have established a fully automated, multidimensional protein purification strategy for the parallel production of the catalytic G-domains of KRas, Rac1 and RalB GTPases in the active form. This method incorporates a four step chromatography purification with TEV protease-mediated affinity tag cleavage and a conditioning step that achieves the activation of the GTPase by exchanging GDP for the non-hydrolyzable GTP analogue GMPPnP. We also demonstrate that an automated method is efficient at loading of KRas with mantGDP for application in a SOS1 catalysed fluorescent nucleotide exchange assay. In comparison to more conventional manual workflows the automated method offers marked advantages in method run time and operator workload. This reduces the bottleneck in protein production while generating products that are highly purified and effectively loaded with nucleotide analogues.

Aqueous nickel-nitrilotriacetate modified Fe(3)O(4)-NH(3)(+) nanoparticles for protein purification and cell targeting

A comprehensive totally aqueous phase synthesis of nickel-nitrilotriacetate (Ni-NTA) modified superparamagnetic Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles is presented. The Fe(3)O(4)-NTA-Ni nanoparticles are able to perform efficient and specific purification of 6-His tagged proteins from crude cell lysates, as evidenced by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot analysis. The average binding capacity, as demonstrated by streptopain (M(W) 42 kDa), is 0.23 mg/mg (protein/Fe(3)O(4)-NTA-Ni). Considering the high affinity and specificity of the binding between hexahistidine motif and Ni-NTA, Ni-NTA modified nanoparticles could act as a module to carry 6-His tagged proteins on the particle surface with molecular orientation control, since only the 6-His domain could be attached. These modularly designed functional nanoparticles enhance cancer cell targeting, as supported by the in vitro receptor mediated targeting assay using RGD-4C-6-His fusion peptide. The nanoparticles show no significant hemolysis for human blood and could be investigated further for their in vivo functional imaging applications.

Evaluation of IDA-PEVA hollow fiber membrane metal ion affinity chromatography for purification of a histidine-tagged human proinsulin

Inabilities to process particulate material and to allow the use of high flow rates are limitations of conventional chromatography. Membranes have been suggested as matrix for affinity separation due to advantages such as allowing high flow rates and low-pressure drops. This work evaluated the feasibility of using an iminodiacetic acid linked poly(ethylenevinyl alcohol) membrane in the immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) purification of a human proinsulin(His)(6) of an industrial insulin production process. The screening of metal ions showed Ni(2+) as metal with higher selectivity and capacity among the Cu(2+), Ni(2+), Zn(2+) and Co(2+). The membrane showed to be equivalent to conventional chelating beads in terms of selectivity and had a lower capacity (3.68 mg/g versus 12.26 mg/g). The dynamic adsorption capacity for human proinsulin(His)(6) was unaffected by the mode of operation (dead-end and cross-flow filtration).