화학공학소재연구정보센터
Process Biochemistry, Vol.62, 80-90, 2017
Prevention of aggregate formation through mechanism analysis in refolding of recombinant pertactin from Escherichia coli
Production of natural pertactin for pharmaceutical use is limited by its low abundance. In this study, recombinant pertactin was highly expressed in the form of inclusion bodies in E. coll. However, up to 75% of the soluble turned out as aggregates when refolding by pulse-fed batch dilution. The conceivable route for aggregate formation was proposed as that the C-terminus of partially folded intermediate with a strong hydrophobic core would intertwine with that region of newly added denatured protein, resulting in aggregation between proteins with different folding states. The key factor for prevention of aggregate formation was to improve the synchronization of refolding. For this purpose, flash-batch dilution was conducted at a scale of 5 L and achieved a monomeric refolding yield of above 70%. Aggregates formed were efficiently removed along with impurities by one-step chromatography of Ni-resin. The purity of monomeric pertactin was > 98%. An overall yield was 320 mg per liter fermentation liquor with a total recovery of about 59%. The purified protein was characterized by MALDI-TOF, circular dichroism, fluorescence, HPLC and DSC, and showed similar physiochemical properties compared to its natural counterpart. Animal study showed similar immunological responses and antibodies elicited demonstrated a comparable reactivity.