Purification of dirucotide, a synthetic 17-aminoacid peptide, by ion exchange centrifugal partition chromatography

•Dirucotide is a synthetic peptide developed for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.•Dirucotide purification was achieved by centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC).•Ion-exchange CPC mode is an efficient tool in the field of peptide purification.•Scale up increases the recovery of the purified dirucotide.

Dirucotide is a synthetic drug candidate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. This 17-aminoacid peptide was successfully purified by ion exchange centrifugal partition chromatography. The optimized conditions involved the biphasic methyl tert-butyl ether/acetonitrile/n-butanol/water (2:1:2:5, v/v) solvent system in the descending mode, the di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid cation-exchanger with an exchanger (di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid)/dirucotide mole ratio of 100 and Ca2+ ions in aqueous solution as displacer. Critical impurities were efficiently eliminated and dirucotide was recovered in high yield and purity (69% and 98%, respectively) and with a productivity of 2.29 g per liter of stationary phase per hour.