A thiophilic adsorbent for the one-step high-performance liquid chromatography purification of monoclonal antibodies.

Thiophilic adsorption chromatography, developed originally by Porath and colleagues (1985, FEBS Lett. 185, 306-310) for conventional chromatographic techniques, was transformed to the HPLC mode upon preparation of new and improved sulfur-containing silica beads. The new thiophilic adsorbent is of high capacity and is suitable for the rapid and single-step purification of all subclasses of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Due to its broad specificity, the thiophilic silica column is an efficient, stable, and inexpensive substitute for protein A and protein G columns used today to purify antibodies.