Affinity chromatography of immunoglobulins by using pre-capture flocculation

Abstract

The present invention relates to new methods for the purification of immunoglobulins from cell culture harvest. These methods are characterized by cleaning steps preceding an initial capture chromatography step. Preferably, the initial capture chromatography is an affinity chromatography and the pre-capture cleaning effect is obtained by flocculation and filtration. By using such pre-capture cleaning steps, an improved quality of the eluted immunoglobulin from the capture matrix is achieved. Furthermore, the enhanced clarification of the cell culture liquid results in reduced precipitations during affinity chromatography and thus increases the lifetimes of the expensive affinity resin. This is an important improvement for immunoglobulin purification in large scale production. The present invention further relates to sequential polishing chromatographies and filtration steps downstream to the capture chromatography, yielding immunoglobulins of high purity.