Process scale-up studies for protein C separation using IMAC

Abstract

Protein C (PC) is the pivotal anticoagulant and antithrombotic in the human coagulation cascade. PC deficiency can disturb the blood hemostasis and cause thrombosis, inhibiting oxygen transport to tissue, and resulting in major medical problems such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The current treatment can cause bleeding and other major medical problems. PC circulates in the blood as a zymogen and is only activated when and where it is needed. PC is a safe anticoagulant without harmful side effects. A combination of ion-exchange chromatography and IMAC IDA-Cu was studied for the relatively large scaled PC separation from Cohn fraction IV-1. Almost half of the active PC was recovered by using this process. In future work, we will verify the linearity of the IMAC column scale-up. This process can be used to produce PC from Cohn fraction IV-1 at large quantities and low cost to treat PC-deficient patients.