Efficient purification of a recombinant tag-free thermostable Kluyveromyces marxianus uricase by pH-induced self-cleavage of intein and expression in Escherichia coli.

Uricase as an important healthcare-related protein is extensively used in the treatment of tumor lysis syndrome and in the manufacture of serum uric-acid diagnostic kits. In this study, a gene of a new thermostable uricase (KmUOX) was cloned from thermotolerant yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus. The uricase was fused with a self-cleaving intein and cellulose-binding affinity tag and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Through the binding to inexpensive cellulose and in situ intein cleavage induced by a pH change, tag-free uricase (KmUOX) was efficiently purified with a 77.11% yield via a single-step column purification strategy. This tag-free uricase showed Km, Vmax, and Kcat values of 67.60 µM, 56.35 µM/(min mg), and 32.74 S-1, respectively. Furthermore, this pure uricase was relatively thermostable and retained 79.75% of activity when incubated at 40 °C for 90 h. Thus, this pH-induced self-cleavable intein system combined with a cellulose matrix for affinity chromatography is proven here to be an effective and low-cost method for recombinant-uricase purification. Moreover, the stability of KmUOX makes it useful for clinical applications.