Application of high-speed counter-current chromatography coupled with a reverse micelle solvent system to separate three proteins from Momordica charantia

High-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) coupled with a reverse micelle solvent system was successfully developed to separate three proteins from Momordica charantia. Suitable HSCCC conditions were carefully optimized as follows: the stationary phase was a reverse micellar phase composed of isooctane and 50 mM bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-1-sulfosuccinate sodium (AOT). The mobile phase contained mobile phase A (50 mM Tris–HCl buffer containing 50 mM KCl at pH 7.0) for forward-extraction and mobile phase B (50 mM Tris–HCl buffer containing 0.5 M KCl at pH 10.0) for back-extraction. The flow rate, detection wavelength and column temperature were set at 1.5 ml/min, 280 nm and 4 °C, respectively. Under these conditions, three fractions (I, II and III) were separated, which showed high purity when analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The structures of these proteins were then identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS/MS and compared with the NCBInr database. Fractions I and III were identified as resistance-like protein P-B and pentatricopeptide repeat-containing protein, respectively, which were found in M. charantia for the first time. However, fraction II, which is thought to be a new protein, was not identified, and further investigations on this fraction are required. The anticancer activities of these three proteins on the human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901 were evaluated in vitro. The results indicated that fraction II has excellent anticancer activity (IC50 = 0.116 mg/ml for 48 h treatment). This is the first report on the use of HSCCC to isolate proteins from M. charantia.

► Proteins from M. charantia were separated by HSCCC using reverse micelle system.
► Separation conditions were optimized and three proteins were isolated.
► The products showed with high purities and two of them were identified.
► One un-known protein with significant anticancer activity was found.