Separation of solid phase synthesis thymosin α1 using ion-exchange method

Thymosin alpha1 (Tα1) is a sort of important immune response modifier and widely used in clinic. In this paper, the SOURCE 15Q and DEAE Sepherose FF resin were selected for purification of solid phase synthesis Tα1 using ion-exchange chromatography and several factors that will influence the process were investigated, such as pH value, sample size, elution protocol and variety of resin. The strategy of purification of Tα1 was established by using SOURCE 15Q as ion-exchanger. The purity of product could reach 95.53% and the yield of purified Tα1 was about 60.4%. Purified peptide was analyzed by ESI-MS and the result showed that the product had the same molecular weight as Tα1. This method can satisfy the requirement of purification of Tα1 in large scale with lower cost.