Disulfide-bridging PEGylation during refolding for the more efficient production of modified proteins

Proteins that are modified by chemical conjugation require at least two separate purification processes. First the bulk protein is purified, and then after chemical conjugation, a second purification process is required to obtain the modified protein. In an effort to develop new enabling technologies to integrate bioprocessing and protein modification, we describe the use of disulfide-bridging conjugation to conduct PEGylation during protein refolding. Preliminary experiments using a PEG-mono-sulfone reagent with partially unfolded leptin and unfolded RNAse T1 indicated that the cysteine thiols underwent disulfide-bridging conjugation to give the PEGylated proteins. Interferon-β1b (IFN-β1b) was then expressed in E.coli as inclusion bodies and found to undergo disulfide bridging-conjugation during refolding. The PEG-IFN-β1b was isolated by ion-exchange chromatography and displayed in vitro biological activity. In the absence of the PEGylation reagent, IFN-β1b refolding was less efficient and yielded protein aggregates. No PEGylation was observed if the cysteines on IFN-β1b were first modified with iodoacetamide prior to refolding. Our results demonstrate that the simultaneous refolding and disulfide bridging PEGylation of proteins could be a useful strategy in the development of affordable modified protein therapeutics.