Ryuichi Miyajima

Purification of Proteinases by Affinity Chromatography Techniques

During studies on the microbial production of acid or alkaline proteinases and an investigation of the similarities of these proteinases from the view point of enzyme-inhibitor relationships, we were successful in isolating pepsin and alkaline proteinase inhibitors. The pepsin inhibitor we isolated was found to be an acylpentapeptide which was named SPI (pepsin-inhibitor produced by Streptomyces)(1). Alkaline proteinase inhibitor, on the other hand, was found to be a protein and was abbreviated as SSI (subtilisin BPN′-inhibitor produced by Streptomyces)(2). We tried to immobilize these inhibitors and to purify the proteinases by affinity chromatography on both immobilized inhibitors.