Dye affinity chromatography: a low-cost tool for protein purification

Abstract

Affinity chromatography has proved to be an effective technique for the recovery and purification of proteins. One of its main advantages is that it requires only one chromatographic step whereas other techniques require two or more. Another advantage is its ability to adsorb proteins present in samples at very low concentrations, thus avoiding the need to pre-concentrate the protein of interest or to eliminate potential interferents. However, the use of affinity chromatography at industrial scale is limited due to the high cost of the ligands traditionally used. Triazine dyes, which are molecules initially developed within the framework of the textile industry, have allowed overcoming this limitation. These ligands are low-cost molecules, are easily immobilized on different supports and, under appropriate conditions, allow the selective adsorption and subsequent desorption of proteins. Moreover, the purity levels achieved for many purified proteins are equivalent to those obtained using more expensive affinity ligands. The present chapter shows the efforts made so far to develop chromatographic matrices with immobilized triazine dyes for the purification of proteins with commercial value from different starting raw materials.