Purification of infective baculoviruses by monoliths
P. Gerster, E.-M. Kopecky, N. Hammerschmidt, M. Klausberger, F. Krammer, R. Grabherr, C. Mersich, L. Urbas, P. Kramberger, T. Paril, M. Schreiner, K. Nöbauer, E. Razzazi-Fazeli, A. Jungbauer
Journal of Chromatography A, 1290 (2013) 36-45(2013) 36-45
A chromatographic process based on monoliths for purification of infective baculovirus without prior concentration step has been established. Baculovirus produced in Spodoptera frugiperda cells (Sf-9) were harvested by centrifugation, filtered through 0.8 μm filters and directly loaded onto radial 1 mL anion exchange monoliths with a channel size of 1.5–2.0 μm operated at a volumetric flow rate of one bed volume per minute. Optional an epoxy monolith was used as pre-column to reduce interfering compounds and substances influencing the capacity of anion exchange monoliths for baculovirus infectious virus could be eluted with a step gradient at salt concentrations of 440 mM NaCl. Recovery of infectious virus was highly influenced by composition and age of supernatant and ranged from 20 to >99% active baculovirus. Total protein content could be reduced to 1–8% and DNA content to 38–48% in main virus fraction. Infective virus could be 52-fold concentrated within 20.5 h and simultaneously an 82-fold volume reduction was possible when loading 1150 mL (2.1 × 108 pfu/mL) onto 1 mL scale support.