Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd.

Kozo Kawase

Mamoru Tomita

Mitsunori Takase

Wayne R Bellamy

Seiichi Shimamura

Koji Yamauchi

Hiroyuki Wakabayashi

Yasuo Fukuwatari

Yukiko Tokita

Wolfgang Konig

Yukio Tokita

Tomoyuki Hagiwara

Hiroyuki Matukuma

Antimicrobial agents and method for treating products therewith

Immunostimulatory agent

An antimicrobial peptide containing at least the following amino acid sequence, or a derivative thereof, an antimicrobial agent containing said antimicrobial peptide or a derivative thereof as active components at a concentration of at least 1 .mu.M, an antimicrobial composition containing said antimicrobial peptide or a derivative thereof, and a method for processing products which uses the antimicrobial agent containing at least said antimicrobial peptide or a derivative thereof:

Antimicrobial peptide and antimicrobial agent

An antimicrobial peptide containing an amino acid sequence comprising at least from three to six arbitrary amino acid residues, or a derivative thereof, an antimicrobial agent containing said antimicrobial peptide or a derivative thereof as active components at a concentration of at least 2 .mu.M, an antimicrobial composition containing said antimicrobial peptide or a derivative thereof, and a method for processing products which uses the antimicrobial agent containing at least said antimicrobial peptide or a derivative thereof.

Lactoferricin (Trade Mark), also called LFCIN (Trade Mark), a potent antimicrobial peptide, is produced by contacting an enzymatic hydrolysate of bovine lactoferrin or any mixture of peptides containing lactoferricin preferably with a butyl moiety-containing hydrophobic interaction chromatography medium, or alternatively with a carboxymethyl moiety-containing cation-exchange chromatography medium, rinsing the medium to remove unbound peptides, desorbing the lactoferricin solution at constant pH, and desalting the desorbed solution. The utility of the process is illustrated, for example, as follows. An enzymatic hydrolysate of bovine lactoferrin (600 g) was contacted with 3000 ml of BUTYL-TOYOPEARL 650M, the medium was rinsed with water, and then with McIlvaine (citric acid-sodium phosphate) buffer at pH 7.0., and lactoferricin was desorbed with McIlvaine buffer at pH 5.0. The desorbed material was desalted by contacting it with BUTYL-TOYOPEARL 650M, rinsing the medium with water to remove the buffer salts, and desorbing the lactoferricin with 10 mM HCl. A yield of 10.5 g of 99% purity was obtained. The product has applications as a safe and effective antimicrobial agent for use in oral hygiene products, cosmetics, clinical foods, etc.

Process for large-scale production of antimicrobal peptide in high purity

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Kozo Kawase