Two-step chromatographic method for separation and purification of nerve growth factor from venom of Chinese cobra

By selecting the different combination schemes, a simple, fast and highly efficient method for separation and purification of nerve growth factor (NGF) from venom of Chinese cobra is reported in this paper. This purification process consists of a two-step chromatographic separation on DEAE-Sepharose F.F. anion-exchange medium followed by a Sephadex G-50 gel filtration. On reducing and non-reducing sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), the nerve growth factor obtained with this process proved to be homogeneous and its molecular weight was separately estimated to be approximately 14.5 and 29.0 kD, which was consistent with that reported in literature; and on high performance size-exclusion chromatography and reversed-phase chromatography, its purity was about 99%. The yield of this purification method was 0.51% and the nerve growth factor obtained had the activity of eliciting neurite outgrowth from chick embryonic dorsal root ganglia. The optimum concentration of nerve growth factor was 5–100 ng/ml and the minimal concentration eliciting neurite outgrowth from chick embryonic dorsal root ganglia was 5.0 ng/ml.