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How to generate an antibody affinity column for protein purification?

Posted by The Protein Man on Oct 23, 2013 10:08:00 AM
The Protein Man

How to we immobilize our antibody over a column to extract the antibody's specific antigen from different samples?

 

Antibody Immobilization

There are several activated resins available to achieve an affinity column.: 

  1. Sulfhydryl Coupling Resin: This resin uses an iodoacetyl group to covalently attach proteins to the resin through free sulfhydryls.  Obviously for successful coupling free sulfhydryls must be present.  In the case of antibodies, a mild reducing agent (2-mercaptoethylamine) can be used to generate free sulfhydryls in the constant domain, without destroying antigen binding affinities.    The sulfyhydryl Immobilization kit for Proteins is supplied with all reagents to generate 5 x 2ml columns, including the reducing agent.

  2. Amine Coupling Resin: The amine coupling resin has reactive aldehyde groups that react with primary amines to form Schiff’s bases. The Schiff’s base is then reduced with a suitable reducing agent (sodium cyanoborohydride) to form a covalent bond and couple the protein to the resin.    A kit containing all the necessary reagents, including reducing agent is also available.

  3. An alternative to the Amine Coupling Resin is NHS-Activated resin. This resin involves a reactive NHS group that binds to primary amines forming a covalent bond. The reaction is performed at near neutral pH and does not require a harsh reducing agent. A kit format is also available.

  4. Immobilized Protein A, Immobilized Protein G or Immobilized Protein A/G.  This bind the antibody constant domain ensuring the antigen binding domain are facing away from the resin for optimal binding.  The selection is dependent of the affinity of the protein A, G or A/G for the antibody.  Not a covalent attachment, unless a crosslinker is used, such as DSS. This however can affect affinity

For more information:

Protein Purification Handbook  

Topics: Protein Purification, Antibody Production

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CB™ PROTEIN ASSAY: A Bradford Protein Assay

CB Protein Assay Graph

An improved Coomassie Dye based protein assay based on the Bradford Protein Assay. This assay is suitable for the simple and rapid estimation of protein concentration. This assay is based on a single Coomassie dye based reagent. The binding of protein to the dye results in a change of color from brown to blue. The change in color density is proportional to protein concentration. Protein estimation can be performed using as little as 0.5µg protein.

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