Protein A affinity chromatographic materials are widely used in clinical medicine and biomedicine because of their specific interactions with immunoglobulin G (IgG). Both the characteristics of the matrix, such as its structure and morphology, and the surface modification method contribute to the affinity properties of the packing materials. The specific, orderly, and oriented immobilization of protein A can reduce its steric hindrance with the matrix and preserve its bioactive sites. In this study, four types of affinity chromatographic materials were obtained using agarose and polyglycidyl methacrylate (PGMA) spheres as substrates, and multifunctional epoxy and maleimide groups were used to fix protein A. The effects of the ethylenediamine concentration, reaction pH, buffer concentration, and other conditions on the coupling efficiency of protein A and adsorption performance of IgG were evaluated. Multifunctional epoxy materials were prepared by converting part of the epoxy groups of the agarose and PGMA matrices into amino groups using 0.2 and 1.6 mol/L ethylenediamine, respectively. Protein A was coupled to the multifunctional epoxy materials using 5 mmol/L borate buffer (pH 8) as the reaction solution. When protein A was immobilized on the substrates by maleimide groups, the agarose and PGMA substrates were activated with 25% (v/v) ethylenediamine for 16 h to convert all epoxy groups into amino groups. The maleimide materials were then converted into amino-modified materials by adding 3 mg/mL 3-maleimidobenzoyl-N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (MBS) dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and then suspended in 5 mmol/L borate buffer (pH 8). The maleimide groups reacted specifically with the C-terminal of the sulfhydryl group of recombinant protein A to achieve highly selective fixation on both the agarose and PGMA substrates. The adsorption performance of the affinity materials for IgG was improved by optimizing the bonding conditions of protein A, such as the matrix type, matrix particle size, and protein A content, and the adsorption properties of each affinity material for IgG were determined. The column pressure of the protein A affinity materials prepared using agarose or PGMA as the matrix via the maleimide method was subsequently evaluated at different flow rates. The affinity materials prepared with PGMA as the matrix exhibited superior mechanical strength compared with the materials prepared with agarose. Moreover, an excellent linear relationship between the flow rate and column pressure of 80 mL/min was observed for this affinity material. Subsequently, the effect of the particle size of the PGMA matrix on the binding capacity of IgG was investigated. Under the same protein A content, the dynamic binding capacity of the affinity materials on the PGMA matrix was higher when the particle size was 44-88 μm than when other particle sizes were used. The properties of the affinity materials prepared using the multifunctional epoxy and maleimide-modified materials were compared by synthesizing affinity materials with different protein A coupling amounts of 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 mg/mL. The dynamic and static binding capacities of each material for bovine IgG were then determined. The prepared affinity material was packed into a chromatographic column to purify IgG from bovine colostrum. Although all materials showed specific adsorption selectivity for IgG, the affinity material prepared by immobilizing protein A on the PGMA matrix with maleimide showed significantly better performance and achieved a higher dynamic binding capacity at a lower protein grafting amount. When the protein grafting amount was 15.71 mg/mL, the dynamic binding capacity of bovine IgG was 32.23 mg/mL, and the dynamic binding capacity of human IgG reached 54.41 mg/mL. After 160 cycles of alkali treatment, the dynamic binding capacity of the material reached 94.6% of the initial value, indicating its good stability. The developed method is appropriate for the production of protein A affinity chromatographic materials and shows great potential in the fields of protein immobilization and immunoadsorption material synthesis.
蛋白A亲和色谱填料由于能够和免疫球蛋白G(IgG)特异性作用,已广泛应用于临床医学、生物医药领域。采用不同结构和形貌的基质,通过不同的表面修饰方法得到的填料性能差别很大。研究分别以常用的琼脂糖和聚甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酯(PGMA)小球为基质,通过多功能环氧基定向固定蛋白A制得琼脂糖基质亲和色谱填料(A-S)和PGMA基质亲和色谱填料(P-S)。通过马来酰亚氨基定向固定蛋白A制得琼脂糖基质亲和色谱填料(A-R)和PGMA基质亲和色谱填料(P-R)。通过对蛋白A的键合工艺加以优化,研究了基质种类、基质粒径以及蛋白A含量等条件对材料性能的影响,提高了材料对IgG的吸附性能。结果表明,尽管所制备的4类材料对IgG都有一定的吸附选择性,但P-R的性能明显更加优异,可在较低的蛋白A配基密度下达到较高的动态载量。制备了不同配基密度的亲和色谱填料,其中配基密度为15.71 mg/mL的P-R对牛免疫球蛋白的动态载量为32.23 mg/mL,对人免疫球蛋白的动态载量达到54.41 mg/mL,且在碱处理160个循环后动态载量仍为初始值的94.6%。耐压测试结果表明P-R的机械强度远高于同等条件下制得的琼脂糖基质的亲和材料A-R,当流速到达80 mL/min时,PGMA基质色谱柱的流速与压力仍保持较好的线性关系,P-R的耐压性能好,可以在更高的流速下进行分离纯化。以上结果说明以马来酰亚氨基在PGMA上固定蛋白A的工艺更适宜于蛋白A亲和色谱填料的工程化生产,所发展的方法有望在固定蛋白和免疫吸附材料合成领域发挥更大的作用。
Keywords: affinity chromatography; agarose; dynamic binding capacity; immunoglobulin G (IgG); polyglycidyl methacrylate (PGMA); protein A.