Common limitations of Protein A affinity chromatography include high adsorbent costs, ligand instability and possible ligand leakage. In this study, a short peptide with affinity for IgG was synthesized chemically and subsequently immobilized on a megaporous support. The support was prepared utilising the cryogel technique while the peptide-ligand was covalently immobilised via thiol-epoxy click chemistry. The cryogel support was chemically grafted to increase the number of reaction sites. This adsorbent was designated as "MP-Pep". Adsorption isotherms were employed to evaluate protein binding capacity. A maximum static binding capacity within the range of 30-60 mg/mL was observed for hIgG. This parameter compares well with other commercial and non-commercial adsorbents, as reported in the literature. As a control material, a Protein A grafted megaporous cryogel was synthesized. Dynamic binding capacity values were obtained by breakthrough analysis. The peptide cryogel showed a dynamic capacity value 9.0 mg/mL in comparison to 9.7 mg/mL in the case of the Protein A based adsorbent. The ratio of dynamic binding capacity to static binding capacity was 20%, indicating suboptimal product capture. However, the advantage of MP-Pep lies in its cost-effective preparations while maintaining a reasonable binding capacity for the targeted product. The presence of cooperative effects during protein binding could also represent an advantage during the processing of a feedstock containing a product in high concentration.
