Novel magnetic supports for small molecule affinity capture of proteins for use in proteomics

Magnetic supports are tested for use in batch affinity capture of proteins. Two types of magnetic polymer composites were used for solid phase synthesis and for the batch affinity chromatography of folate binding protein from a protein mixture. Gly-Gly-L-Methotrexate as well as other analogs were synthesized on magnetic supports consisting of either polyoxyalkyleneamine grafted onto polystyrene beads or a copolymer of polyethylene glycol dimethylacrylamide (PEGA). Both supports incorporated within their matrix sub-micron particles of paramagnetic magnetite. The peptide-methotrexate analogs were attached to the magnetic supports via a photocleavable linker. The bound methotrexate-peptide analogs were equilibrated with a protein mixture consisting of bovine albumin, chicken albumin, folate binding protein, lysozyme, lactoferrin and lactoperoxidase precursor in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and then after magnetically separating and washing the supports of any unbound components the bound protein was removed either through the photocleavage of the tethered methotrexate-peptide ligand or via exchange with soluble methotrexate. In all cases, the photocleavage or exchange with soluble methotrexate released folate binding protein as the major affinity captured protein. Of the two magnetic supports tested, the PEGA based support was found to be superior to the polyoxyalkyleneamine grafted polystyrene support and comparable to beaded agarose in releasing bound folate binding protein. Of the two methods for removing bound protein, photocleavage of the covalently attached ligand was found to release exclusively folate binding protein as opposed to exchange with soluble methotrexate which released residual amounts of the non-specifically bound proteins bovine and chicken albumin, in addition to folate binding protein. Thus, use of the PEGA based magnetic support in conjunction with a photocleavable linker should help facilitate the automation of multiple parallel affinity chromatography for proteomics applications.