Concentration Measurement of Unpurified Proteins Using Biosensor Technology under Conditions of Partial Mass Transport Limitation

Using biosensor technology, it is possible to measure protein concentration when the binding of the protein to an appropriate ligand immobilized on the sensor surface is totally limited by diffusion and mass transport, a condition difficult to achieve in practice. In such a case, the observed binding rate does not reflect the intrinsic binding capacity of the molecular partners, but is simply proportional to the concentration of the protein analyte that is introduced in a continuous flow over the ligand. We describe here a more general biosensor method for measuring protein concentration which is applicable to conditions where mass transport is not totally but only partially rate limiting. The proposed method, which is based on measurements at different flow rates, does not require a standard of known protein concentration and can be used with unpurified proteins. The method is applicable to ligand–analyte pairs with an association rate constant as low as 103m−1s−1and requires only knowledge of the molecular weight and diffusion coefficient of the analyte. The method was used successfully to measure the concentration of monoclonal antibodies, monoclonal antibody fragments (Fab) obtained by papain cleavage, and recombinant Fab fragments of widely different affinities in crudeEscherichia coliextracts.