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Luc Guerrier

Publications and source records attributed to Luc Guerrier.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Reducing protein concentration range of biological samples using solid-phase ligand libraries.

The discovery of specific polypeptides of diagnostic relevance from a biological liquid is complicated by the overall vast number and the large concentration range of all polypeptides/proteins in the sample. Depletion or fractionation methodologies have been used for selectively removing abundant proteins; however, they failed to significantly enrich trace proteins. Here we expand upon a new method that allows the reduction of the protein concentration range within a complex mixture, like neat serum, through the simultaneous dilution of high abundance proteins and the concentration of low abundance ones in a single, simple step. This methodology utilizes solid-phase ligand libraries of large diversity. With a controlled sample-to-ligand ratio it is possible to modulate the relative concentration of proteins such that a large number of peptides or proteins that are normally not detectable by classical analytical methods become, easily detectable. Application of this method for reducing the dynamic range of unfractionated serum is specifically described along with treatment of other biological extracts. Analytical surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (SELDI-MS) technology and mono- and two-dimensional electrophoresis (1-DE and 2-DE) demonstrate the increase in the number of proteins detected. Examples linking this approach with additional fractionation methods demonstrate a further increase in the number of detectable species using either the so-called "top down" or "bottom up" approaches for proteomics analysis. By enabling the detection of a greater proportion of polypeptides/proteins within a sample, this method may contribute significantly towards the discovery of new biomarkers of diagnostic relevance.

Chromatography, Ion Exchange↗

A new approach for the removal of protein impurities from purified biologicals using combinatorial solid-phase ligand libraries.

The removal of last impurity traces from a purified protein is generally called polishing. It is an important step in downstream processing since protein impurities may generate undesirable side effects when the preparation is intended for research, diagnostic and more importantly therapeutic applications. Polishing is generally achieved by using orthogonal separation methods to previous steps, the most common being gel permeation chromatography. In spite of its polishing effectiveness, this technique suffers from a poor separation capacity and modest productivity as a result of low speed. Other approaches, for instance, based on anion exchange or on hydrophobic chromatography, that may be optimized for a given process cannot be used as generic methods. This document reports for the first time the use of a combinatorial solid-phase peptide library as a general method for the removal of impurity traces. Several examples of impurity trace removal are reported; starting material is either a pure protein spiked with serum proteins or with Escherichia coli extracts or current purified proteins still containing a small percentage of impurities. Among polished proteins are recombinant human albumin expressed in Pichia pastoris and human transferrin purified from whole plasma. This new method is used in neutral or even physiological pH and ionic strength conditions, with a remarkable capability to remove impurities. The process is as rapid as current adsorption chromatography procedures usable for the removal of a large number of protein impurities, with each one present in small amounts, such as host cell proteins.

Biological Products↗

A new approach for the detection and identification of protein impurities using combinatorial solid phase ligand libraries.

We propose a novel method for detection of protein impurities present in plasma-derived and recombinant purified injectable biopharmaceuticals by enhancing the concentration of protein impurities, in essence "amplifying" their presence to detectable levels. The method is based on the capture of proteins using a combinatorial solid-phase hexapeptides ligand library previously described for the reduction of protein concentration difference in biological fluids. Three proteins have been investigated: Staphylococcus aureus Protein A, expressed in Escherichia coli and supplied as 99% pure, recombinant human albumin, expressed in Pichia pastoris and certified as 95% pure, and therapeutic albumin supplied as 96-98% pure injectable solution. In all cases, after treatment with the ligand libraries, a number of additional polypeptide chains, not visible in the control, could be detected and obtained in sufficient amounts for MS analysis. In the cases of the two recombinant proteins, it could be demonstrated that a number of these polypeptide chains were host cell proteins still present in the purified product. In addition, a substantial number of these spots were found to be cleavage products of the original recombinant DNA species. Such cleavage products were particularly abundant in the recombinant human albumin preparation. From pure injectable serum albumin, a number of human plasma protein impurities were also identified by LC-MS/MS analysis. Treatment with ligand libraries of purified proteins is thus seen as a very powerful method of capture and concentration of host proteins and cleaved products for further analysis to control better the quality of industrial biotechnology products.

Albumins↗

Exploring the hidden human urinary proteome via ligand library beads.

The human urinary proteome has been reassessed and re-evaluated via a novel concentration/equalization technique, exploiting beads coated with hexameric peptide ligand libraries. These beads act by capturing the whole protein spectra contained in the sample, by drastically reducing the level of the most abundant species, while strongly concentrating the more dilute and rare ones. In a control urine sample, 134 unique proteins could be identified. The first bead eluate (in thiourea, urea, and CHAPS) permitted the identification of 317 gene products, whereas the second eluate (in 9 M urea, pH 3.8) allowed the identification of another 95 unique proteins. By eliminating redundancies, a total of 383 unique gene products could be identified in human urines. This represents a major increment as compared to data reported in recent literature. By comparing our data with those reported to the present, an additional 251 proteins could be added to the list, thus bringing the total unique gene products so far identified in human urines to ca. 800 species.

Adult↗