Cyclic peptide ligand with high binding capacity for affinity purification of immunoglobulin G

- Cyclic peptide ligand to bind IgG Fc domain (FcBP) with high binding affinity.
- FcBP purified human IgG with a high binding capacity comparable to Protein A.
- FcBP purified porcine and rabbit IgGs from their serum with high purity.
- FcBP column showed good purification ability of IgG from HEK293F culture media.

The rapidly increasing implementation of antibodies in therapeutic and diagnostic applications has necessitated the development of antibody production and purification technologies for both academic and industrial usage. Bacterial Protein A and Protein G are known to bind antibodies with high affinity and have facilitated the isolation and purification thereof. Recently, small peptide ligands (i.e. IgG Fc domain-binding peptides, FcBP) that specifically bind to the Fc-domain of antibodies were reported. In the present study we describe the development of a reusable high affinity column for antibody purification utilizing immobilized FcBP, comprising 13 amino acids residues, on a sepharose resin. In addition to FcBP, Cys to Ser substituted FcBP (FcBP-Ser), reduced FcBP (FcBP-Red), commercial Protein A and Protein G resins, packed into columns, were evaluated for antibody purification. All these columns except the FcBP-Ser one showed good binding capacity for a humanized IgG (trastuzumab) and a chimeric IgG (cetuximab). The column packed with FcBP-Red allowed antibody purification at a less acidic pH (pH 4.8) than was required for the other ligand affinity columns used in our experiments (i.e., pH 3.2 for Protein G and FcBP columns, and pH 3.5 for Protein A column, respectively). Utilizing the FcBP column, antibodies from swine human sera were isolated with a purity of 95%. Interestingly, the FcBP column could be easily regenerated and operated without loss of efficiency for up to 60 runs, the maximum number of runs performed in the present study.