Surface Activation
This is an intermediate step to prepare functionalized solid supports for biopolymer immobilization. Some solid supports are commercially available in an active form. For non-active solid supports, we can either convert them to an activate form or allow them to react directly with a biopolymer using active coupling reagents.
CellMosaic uses these processes exclusively to support our custom Biopolymer Immobilization services
Example 1: Preparation of active esters from hydroxyl-containing solid supports for reaction with amine-containing biopolymers or small molecules.
Solid supports containing hydroxyl groups, such as agarose, react with cyanogen bromide to form a cyanate ester. Due to the stability issues of active cyanate esters, the activated solid supports produced at CellMosaic are used immediately for large-scale immobilization of antigens and antibodies.
Scheme 1. Activation of solid supports by cyanogen bromide (BrCN)
References:
1. Axén, R.; Porath, J.; Ernback, S. Chemical coupling of peptides and proteins to polysaccharides by means of cyanogen halides. Nature. 1967, Jun 24;214(5095):1302-4.
2. Porath, J.; Aspberg, K.; Drevin, H.; Axén, R. Preparation of cyanogen bromide-activated agarose gels. J Chromatogr. 1973, 86, 53-65.
3. March, S. C.; Parikh, I; Guatrecasas, P. A. Simplified method for cyanogen bromide activation of agarose for affinity chromatography. Analytical Biochem. 1974, 60, 149-152.
4. Kohn, J.; Wilchek, M. A colorimetric method for monitoring activation of sepharose by cyanogen bromide. Biochem Biophys Research Communications 1978, 84, 7-14.