Bioaffinity Chromatography Essay

Bioaffinity chromatography is a type of affinity chromatography in which biological compounds such as immunoglobulin-binding proteins, enzymes, lectins, carbohydrates, avidin/biotin system and antibodies are used as ligands (Hage, 2006). Immunoglobulin-binding proteins, namely protein A which is produced by Staphylococcus aureus and protein G which is produced by streptococci, are the ligands that are used in the vast majority of bioaffinity chromatographic applications (Tetala and van Beek, 2010). However, enzymes and enzyme inhibitors can also be used as affinity ligands (Hage, 2006). Immobilized enzymes are widely utilized in many applications, concerning pharmaceutical and food industries. Furthermore, they are used in order to purify enzyme inhibitors, as well as for the removal of impurities from unprocessed extracts. In a similar way, enzyme inhibitors can be utilized for the purification of enzymes from crude extracts (Tetala and van Beek, 2010). The immobilization of enzymes on monolithic stationary phases enables them to be used in a wide range of applications concerning bioaffinity chromatography (Petro, Svec and Fréchet, 1996).

Nonetheless, as technology develops rapidly the demands for improvements and advances in order to separate biomolecules in a more efficient way, as well as the overwhelming of the restrictions, which specific stationary phases have, has motivated researchers and scientists in order to search for materials that can replace stationary phases used last decades (Tetala and van Beek, 2010).

Svec and Frechet (1992) developed continuous methacrylate rods from glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) as monomer and crosslinker. These two discoveries had a great impact, as they prov...

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...lications in the future. This is due to the fact that this method has become rough, not complicated and it can be performed in a conventional way without being mandatory the investigation into depth for every application (Tetala and van Beek, 2010). New forms are going to be operated in order to recognize bacteria and also aptamers are going to be used more often. Moreover, the investigation of new types of monoliths will also include the study of present or alterative types of polymers, in order to come out with a wider range of pore sizes, surface areas and new morphologies that can be used in this type of affinity chromatography (Pfaunmiller et al., 2013). Finally, monolithic stationary phases are expected to have a great impact on future applications, for instance if organic monolithic supports will be combined with hybrids of silica (Pfaunmiller et al., 2013).