Evaluation of adsorption selectivity of immunoglobulins M, A and G and purification of immunoglobulin M with mixed-mode resins

This study investigated adsorption selectivity of immunoglobulin M (IgM), immunoglobulin A (IgA) and immunoglobulin (IgG) on four mixed-mode resins with the functional ligands of 4-mercatoethyl-pyridine (MEP), 2-mercapto-1-methylimidazole (MMI), 5-aminobenzimidazole (ABI) and tryptophan-5-aminobenzimidazole (W-ABI), respectively. IgM purification processes with mixed-mode resins were also proposed. All resins showed typical pH-dependent adsorption, and high adsorption capacity was found at pH 5.0-8.0 with low adsorption capacity under acidic conditions. Meanwhile, high selectivity of IgM/IgA and IgM/IgG was obtained with ABI-4FF and MMI-4FF resins at pH 4.0-5.0, which was used to develop a method for IgM, IgA and IgG separation by controlling loading and elution pH. Capture of monoclonal IgM from cell culture supernatant with ABI-4FF resins was studied and high purity (∼99%) and good recovery (80.8%) were obtained. Moreover, IgM direct separation from human serum with combined two-step chromatography (ABI-4FF and MMI-4FF) was investigated, and IgM purity of 65.2% and a purification factor of 28.3 were obtained after optimization. The antibody activity of IgM was maintained after purification. The results demonstrated that mixed-mode chromatography with specially-designed ligands is a promising way to improve adsorption selectivity and process efficiency of IgM purification from complex feedstock.