Expression and one-step ion-exchange purification of (AAR)IL-8 (human IL-8 receptor antagonist)

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is C-X-C chemokine, which is produced by a variety of cells. IL-8 plays an important role in the inflammatory response and may be a therapeutic target for some inflammatory diseases. To develop an IL-8 receptor antagonist, (AAR)IL-8 (IL-8 receptor antagonist) was constructed and successfully expressed in Escherichia coli. (AAR)IL-8 could be easily purified by one-step SP-Sepharose fast flow column after the lysate of recombinant bacterial cells was heated at 70 °C for 10 min. The purity of (AAR)IL-8 is more than 95%. This purification process resulted in final purified yields of 4.29 mg (AAR)IL-8/g cell paste. In addition, the purified (AAR)IL-8 can significantly inhibit the chemotaxis that was induced by human IL-8 in vitro and in vivo. These results showed that this purification process is very simple and effective. It could be easily amplified at a larger scale. (AAR)IL-8 might find use as a new therapeutic IL-8 receptor antagonist for some acute and chronic inflammatory diseases.