Isolation and fast purification of neocarzinostatin by FPLC-ion exchange chromatography

Neocarzinostatin, a highly toxic antitumor protein containing an essential nonprotein chromophore, can be isolated and purified from culture filtrates of Streptomyces carcinostaticus. Usually a lengthy procedure of up to 60 h is necessary for the isolation, including several chromatographic steps partly under conditions which favour inactivation of the drug by release of chromophore. We describe a new method yielding practically clinical grade Neocarzinostatin from crude extracts in 20 min. This very fast and reproducible method was made possible by using a Mono Q anion exchange column filled with monodisperse gel material which has been recently developed.