Utilizing a library of synthetic affinity ligands for the enrichment, depletion and one-step purification of leech proteins

Although the concept of affinity purification using synthetic ligands had been utilized for many years, there are few articles related to this research area, and they focus only on the affinity purification of specific protein by a defined library of synthetic ligands. This study presents the design and construction of a 700‐member library of synthetic ligands in detail. We selected 297 ligand columns from a 700‐member library of synthetic ligands to screen leech protein extract. Of the 297, 154 columns had an enrichment effect, 83 columns had a depletion effect, 36 columns had a one‐step purification effect, and 58 columns had a one‐step purification via flowthrough effect. The experimental results achieved by this large library of affinity ligands provide solid convincing data for the theory that affinity chromatography could be used for the enrichment of proteins that are present in low abundance, the depletion of high abundance proteins, and one‐step purification of special proteins. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.