Purification of immunoglobulin Y from egg yolk using thermoresponsive aqueous micellar two-phase systems comprising ionic liquids

• Autor(a) principal: Vicente, Filipa A.
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Castro, Leonor S., Mondal, Dibyendu, Coutinho, João A. P., Tavares, Ana P. M., Ventura, Sónia P. M., Freire, Mara G.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/34808
• topic: Immunoglobulin Y; Purification; Thermoresponsive system; Micellar systems; Surfactants; Surface-active ionic liquids

Immunoglobulin Y (IgY) represents an important class of antibodies, being present in egg yolk, with relevant medical applications and involving non-invasive methods of extraction. However, due to the complexity of egg yolk, the purification levels required for use in most medical applications demands the application of multi-step and cost-intensive techniques. Therefore, it is of upmost importance to develop a biocompatible and cost-effective downstream process to purify IgY from egg yolk. In this work, IgY was purified from the egg yolk water-soluble protein fraction (WSPF) by the application of thermoresponsive aqueous micellar two-phase systems (AMTPS) composed of the non-ionic surfactant Triton X-114 and surface-active ionic liquids (SAILs) as co-surfactants. The best thermoresponsive systems allowed, in a single step, to recover IgY in the surfactant-poor phase with a purity level of 69%, and up to 73% if consecutive extraction cycles are performed, while maintaining the structural integrity of the antibodies. Considering these results, a downstream process was designed and proposed, consisting of four main steps: (i) recovery of the WSPF; (ii) purification of IgY by applying AMTPS; (iii) isolation of the IgY from the main solvents using an ultrafiltration step; (iv) recycling of the AMTPS phase-forming components by precipitating the contaminant proteins.