Chromatography Forum

Has anyone had any experience with the ProTain columns made by Zirchrom - which are designed to:

- irreversibly bind proteins,

- but allow small molecules to pass through.

I'm wondering how well they do both the former and the latter.

Thanks

Why should anyone want to bind anything on his/her column irreversibly unless the column is to be discarded following the first injection?
All I know is; don’t offer this column to a cost-saving guru

Best Regards

I don't have any experience, but my understanding is that they are precolumns
(10-20mm?) with a reasonable protein capacity before breakthrough - IIRC, about 5 mg of protein.

They were released several years ago, but I've no idea on price. I assume they might be useful for some non-routine situations, but I haven't explored the Zirchrom site for more information.

ZirChrom ProTain is an inline protein removal system. It works in a three-fold way to bind proteins: 1. Ion exchange (neg/pos) 2. Ligand exchange (Lewis acid on zir/Lewis base of protein) 3. Hydrophobic/hydrophilic.

This three-fold attachment of proteins to ProTain is very strong and is generally on/off (conditions get proteins off quickly OR retain them strongly no in-between), making it useful as a trap for contaminating proteins. ProTain columns are compatible with all analytical columns you are currently using (silica-based, polymer-based, or hybrids). They are easy to use when the small molecule analytes are neutral or negatively charged. Positively charged small molecules can be retained by ProTain, but usually at a much weaker interaction than proteins. Appropriate conditions will need to be experimentally determined.

Loading capacity is pH and buffer dependent, it can be up to 5 mg. Regeneration of ProTain columns are possible, however, most customers find it convenient to replace them with new cartridges to save time.

I just wonder what the evidence is for a Lewis acid/base interaction.

It is just the unique surface chemistry of zirconia-based stationary phase. You can find more information on ZirChrom's or Columnex's websites.

http://www.zirchrom.com/
http://www.columnex.com/zirchrom-separations.php

Maybe someone did this, but on the sight of Zirchrom I didn´t see any evidence, also I wonder about there being Lewis acids and Broensted acids and bases there . . . . I always thought all acids and bases were described/defined by the Lewis.