Protein Refolding Assisted by Molecular Tube Based alpha-Cyclodextrin as an Artificial Chaperone

---

Razieh Yazdanparast^*, Mohammad Ali Esmaeili, and Reza Khodarahmi

Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, P. O. Box 13145-1384, The University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran; fax: +98-21-664-046-80; E-mail: yazdan@ibb.ut.ac.ir

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received April 12, 2006; Revision received July 24, 2006

---

In this study, we evaluated, for the first time, the application of molecular tube based alpha-cyclodextrin for improving the refolding yields of two different enzymes: carbonic anhydrase and alkaline phosphatase. Our results indicate that under the optimal developed refolding environments, the denatured carbonic anhydrase and alkaline phosphatase were refolded with a yield of 51 and 61% using 15 and 5 mg/ml of the molecular tube, respectively. Regardless of lower refolding yields compared with liquid-phase artificial chaperone assisted approach, the new technique (solid-phase artificial chaperone assisted refolding) benefits from easier and faster separation of the refolded product from the refolding environment, recycling of the stripping agent, and finally, significantly less environmental effect at the industrial levels. However, further improvements in solid-phase artificial chaperone assisted technique are needed either through synthesizing better stripping agents or by optimizing and defining better refolding environments.

---

KEY WORDS: alkaline phosphatase, artificial chaperone, carbonic anhydrase, alpha-cyclodextrin, molecular tube

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297906120029

---