Preparation of copolymer-grafted mixed-mode resins for immunoglobulin G adsorption

The mixed-mode resins for protein adsorption have been prepared by a novel strategy, copolymer grafting. Specially, the copolymer-grafted resins CG-M-A with two functional groups, 5-amino-benzimidazole (ABI) and methacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (METAC), have been prepared through surface-initiated activator generated by electron transfer for atom transfer radical polymerization of METAC and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA), followed by a ring-open reaction to introduce ABI. The charge and hydrophobicity of CG-MA resins could be controlled by manipulating the addition of METAC and GMA/ABI. Besides, METAC and ABI provided positive effects together in both protein adsorption and elution: dynamic binding capacity of human Immunoglobulin G (hIgG) onto CG-M-A resin with the highest ligand ratio of METAC to ABI is 46.8 mg∙g–1 at pH 9 and the elution recovery of hIgG is 97.0% at pH 5. The separation experiment showed that purity and recovery of monoclonal antibody from cell culture supernatant are 96.0% and 86.5%, respectively, indicating that copolymer-grafted mixed-mode resins could be used for antibody purification.