title: Purification of active calpain by affinity chromatography on an immobilized peptide inhibitor.
abstract: Most purification schemes of calpain (CANP) involve a number of chromatographic steps. The final preparations often contain impurities, including degradation fragments. Two peptide-affinity columns were developed, using peptides of 27 amino acids and 30 amino acids, corresponding to the products of exons 1B and 1C, respectively, of the natural inhibitor (calpastatin) gene, coupled to CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B. Crude preparations of calpain, isolated by anion-exchange chromatography on a DEAE-Sepharose column, were incubated with a reversible or an irreversible synthetic inhibitor which blocks the catalytic subunit of the enzyme in the inactive 80-kDa form. The crude preparation was then loaded onto the peptide column in the presence of calcium. Calpain was eluted with an EGTA-containing buffer. Using the two peptide-affinity columns connected in tandem, calpain was isolated with a high degree of purity, suitable for structural and mechanistic studies, i.e. as an 80/30-kDa heterodimer or in the form of dissociated monomers.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Anagli
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Vilei
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molinari
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Calderara
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carafoli
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002118:Calcium / Q000494:pharmacology; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D002154:Calpain / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D002846:Chromatography, Affinity / Q000379:methods*; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000201:enzymology; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D012685:Sepharose
chemical_list: D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D015853:Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitors; D010446:Peptide Fragments; C033668:calpastatin; D012685:Sepharose; D002154:Calpain; D002118:Calcium