The present invention relates to compounds having pharmacological activity and a method for producing the same.

The present invention resides in a new polypeptide and in a method for producing the same. The preferred method comprises chromatographing a crude compound-contain¬ ing medium on a dextran derived chromatography column; precipitating the eluate in a water-ethanol solution; elec- trophoresing the precipitate in a polyacrylamide gel; and chromatographing the extract on a reverse phase - high performance liguid chromatography column.

The present compound is useful in stimulating thrombocytopoiesis.

The present polypeptide has a molecular weight of approximately 30,000 daltons which may be a dimer of two 15,000 dalton units. The compound has an isoelectric pH of about 4.47 and an activity of 21,000 to 117,000 units per mg of protein. An activity unit for the compound is defined as the amount of material in a mg of protein that is required to increase the % ³⁵ S incorporation into platelets of im u- nothrombocythemic assay mice by 50% above base-line. This may be compared to prior art which discloses thrombocyto¬ poiesis stimulating compounds with molecular weights of 32,000 daltons, an isoelectric pH of 4.7, and an activity of no more than 11,000 units per mg of protein.

The present invention also relates to a method for the production of the compound that provides for a rela¬ tively rapid method of production of the new polypeptide. Also the method as recited in the claims allows the polypep- tide to be stored, without losing its activity, for several days.

Figure 1A represents the effects of Tween-20 on % ³⁵ S incorporation into platelets of TSF assay mice.

Figure IB shows the effects of Tween-20 on the stability of the present polypeptide.

Figure 2 shows the dose-response relationship between the amount of crude medium in mg of polypeptide and the % ³⁵ S incorporation into platelets of immunothrombocy- themic mice. Figure 3 shows the purification of crude polypep¬ tide by Sephadex G-75 column chromatography.

Figure 3A shows a dose-response experiment of Fraction 3 of Figure 3.

Figure 4 shows further purification of post- Sephadex polypeptide by ethanol precipitation.

Figure 4B shows a dose-response procedure of fraction 0-40% of one of the lots of Figure 4A.

Figure 5 shows the results of SDS-PAGE of post- ethanol prepared polypeptide. Figure 6 shows a dose-response procedure between the amounts of SDS-PAGE, Fraction 7 TSF-rich material pre¬ pared in Figure 5 and the % ³⁵ S incorporation into platelets of assay mice.

Figure 7 shows a RP-HPLC of post-SDS-PAGE polypep- tide-rich material.

Figure 8 shows a RP-HPLC of another batch of the same material as presented in Figure 7 using the same column techniques, except the polypeptide active region (tubes 15- 35) was subdivided into 10 groups, dialyzed against water, freeze-dried, and assayed in the mouse bioassay for the polypeptide, *P<0.025, ***P<0.00005.

Figure 9 shows the chromatofocusing of ²⁵ ι- polypeptide (Step IVb, Fraction 3F) from the procedure presented in Figure 8. Figure 10 shows an autoradiograph of SDS-PAGE of

¹²⁵ I-polypeptide used in Figure 9 (Step IVb, Fraction 3F) .

Figures 11A and B show the results of SDS-PAGE of Step III, Fraction 7 (presented in Figure 5) . In Figure 11A, the gel on the left shows the MW standards and the gel on the right shows the results of electrophoresing the post SDS-PAGE polypeptide-rich material after heating 10 min. at 100° in denaturing conditions. In Figure 11B the polypep-

tide was dialyzed in a weak phosphate buffer, freeze-dried, and applied to the gel without heating using non-denaturing conditions. These figures show that a 15 Kd MW polypeptide will self-associate under non-denaturing conditions, leading to polypeptide with a molecular weight of about 30 Kd.

In order to facilitate a further understanding of the invention, the following examples are given primarily for purposes of illustrating certain more specific details thereof. EXAMPLE 1

Sephadex Column Chromatocrraphy.

Crude polypeptide from human embryonic kidney culture media was chromatographed on a 4.4 x 90 cm column of Sephadex G-75 using as an eluting buffer 2.5 mM NaH ² P0 ⁴ - Na ₂ HP0 ₄ in 75 mM NaCl, pH 7.0 at 4°. The maximum protein that could be applied to the column at each time was 1 gram; therefore, for this work each lot of polypeptide was the result of 12 grams of polypeptide enriched eluate prepared in 12 weekly runs on columns. The column eluate was moni- tored at 280 nm and tubes containing the protein within each run were pooled into fractions. Fractions of approxi¬ mately 160 ml each were collected and concentrated on an Amicon TCF-10 with YM10 membranes, lyophilized to dryness, and stored at - 76°. Ethanol Precipitation.

The post-Sephadex polypeptide enriched eluates were further purified by ethanol precipitation. Proteins were precipitated at 0-40, 40-60, and 60-80% ethanol concen¬ trations and sedimented by centrifugation (25,700 x g) at 4°C. The precipitates were lyophilized to dryness and stored at -76°C. Before reconstituting, 0.5 ml of 5% Polyoxyethylene-Sorbitan Monolaurate (Tween-20) was added to enhance polypeptide stability.

Sodium Dodecylsulfate - Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS - PAGE) .

Concentrated post-ethanol precipitate (approxi¬ mately 2 mg/100 μl ) was mixed with a protein solvent solu-

tion containing EDTA, Tris-HCl , SDS , jS-mercaptoethanol , bromophenol blue, sucrose. The precipitated specimens were applied to 1. 4 x 11 cm tubes containing 10% acrylamide gel and were electrophoresed for about 8 hours at 60 mA. For each run , one tube containing the polypeptide enriched precipitate and another tube containing the MW standards were stained with Coomassie brilliant blue. The remaining gels were cut into pieces that contained protein bands identified by the stained gel and the protein was extracted from the gels by homogenization and washing 3 times with distilled water. The extracted protein was lyophilized to dryness and stored at -76 ° C.

Reverse Phase - Hiσh Performance Liquid Chromatography . Reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatogra¬ phy (RP-HPLC) was performed using a 4 . 6 x 30 mm Brownlee C03-GU, RP-300 , C8 300A pore size, 7 μm particle size col¬ umn . The A buffer was 0 . 01 M NaH ₂ P0 , pH 6 . 65 . The B buffer was a 20% solution of the A buffer in acetonitrile. The instrument was a Beckman HPLC system and a flow rate of 200 μl per minute and was used at room temperature . Each fraction was the result of a 9 minute collection time. All mobile phases were prefiltered ( 0 . 22 μm, Millipore) and degassed in vaccuo . aided by brief sonication. After RP- HPLC , the fractions were dialyzed using 1000 MW cutoff membranes against distilled water, lyophilized to dryness , and reconstituted into saline .

The polypeptide produced had a molecular weight of 30 , 000 daltons, an isoelectric pH of 4.47 , and an activity of 21, 000 units per mg. of protein.

TABLE I Table I presents the purification factors of the present polypeptide from kidney cell culture using the present procedure.

Table I: Purification Factors from Kidney Cell Culture Medium

Specific Activity Protein (mg) Polypeptide Units Purification (units/m

Step Method Starting Recovery % Starting Recovery Factors Protein)

0 0.13

3.6 16.8X10 ³ 2240 13 8 1.03

12.7 2130 845 40 25 3.23 3.9 825 196 24 150 19.6

6.6 6.6x10 -3 0.1 130 58 45 68,000 8800 5.9 4.7X10 ^"3 0.08 135 100 74 160,000 21000

EXAMPLE 2 The same conditions as Example 1 were used except that, prior to applying the precipitate specimens to the tubes of acrylamide gel, the specimens were boiled for ten minutes.

The product had a molecular weight of 15,000 daltons, an isoelectric pH of about 4.47, and an activity of at least 21,000 units per mg of protein. When processed under nondenaturing conditions, the product self-associates to form a polypeptide with a molecular weight of 30,000 daltons.

From the foregoing, it may be seen that the new polypeptide produced has a molecular weight of 15,000 in its monomeric forms and 30,000 daltons as a dimer, an isoelec- trie pH of 4.47, and an activity of at least 21,000 units per mg of protein. Also, the method as disclosed provides a relatively rapid method of production of the compound. Additionally, as produced in accordance with the present method, the compound has greater activity and a longer active life than thrombocytopoiesis stimulating compounds of the prior art.

Stability Studies: Figure 1 shows the results of testing the effects of Tween-20 -on % ³⁵ S incorporation into platelets of assay mice (Fig. 1A) and the effects of Tween- 20 in protecting the biological activity of the present polypeptide (Fig. IB) during incubation at room temperature. The results indicate that Tween-20 by itself did not stimu¬ late ³⁵ S incorporation into platelets of assay mice. More¬ over, Tween-20 protected the biological activity of the polypeptide (Fig. IB) during prolonged incubation. In the studies outlined herein, Tween-20 was added to the prepara¬ tions before storage in an effort to retain greater amounts of the biological activity.

Each bar is the average of 5 mice and the vertical bars represent the SE. *Significantly greater than suitable control, P <0.05; NS indicates not significantly different from control. Incubation was at 22"C for 48 hours; in FIG.

1B, Tween-20 was added to the polypeptide-rich preparation before incubation at the rate of 2 μl/mouse.

Purification of Polypeptide: Figure 2 illustrates the results of determining, in a dose-response experiment, the potency of crude polypeptide-rich kidney cell culture medium. As shown, a linear correlation (r ² = 0.97) over a broad dose range was observed (P <0.0005) with 0.13 unit of polypeptide per mg of protein.

The crude polypeptide preparation was subjected to partial purification by Sephadex G-75 column chromatography (Step I) . Figure 3A shows the protein elution pattern; contents of collection tubes were pooled into 5 fractions (as indicated) and the fractions were tested in the mouse bioassay for polypeptide. In Figure 3A, the solid line represents the protein elution pattern at A ₂ so (AUFS=1.0); each fraction was concentrated ^• on an Amicon TCF-10 with YM 10 membranes, lyophilized, and reconstituted into saline to 12.5 ml; each assay mouse was injected with 0.05 ml of this preparation diluted into 2.0 ml of saline. Open circles represent the polypeptide content of each fraction (shown by horizontal bars) , saline and polypeptide starting materi¬ al. The amount of protein injected into each mouse was: Fl, 1.1 mg; F2, 5.5 mg; F3, 0.69; F4, 0.042 mg; and F5, 0.019 mg. Vertical bars represent SE and each point is the aver- age of 5 mice. Values were significantly elevated over saline- control; *P <0.05, ***P<0.0005. As shown, Fractions 2 (the major protein peak) and 3 (area of low protein con¬ tent following the major protein peak) contained almost all of the polypeptide. This work demonstrates that 13% of the polypeptide that was applied to the column was recovered in Fraction 3, but only 3.6% of the protein was recovered, indicating that, by this technique, a significant purifica¬ tion of polypeptide was achieved (8-fold) . This finding indicates that the MW of the polypeptide in non- denaturing reagents is between 30 and 50 K daltons (d) . Also shown in Figure 3A is a dose-response experiment using Fraction 3. The specific activity of this preparation was found to be

1.03 U/mg protein (r ² =0.89, P <0.005). A summary of these data is presented in Table 1.

Figure 4 depicts the results of subjecting post- Sephadex G-75 Fraction 3 material to ethanol precipitation. Proteins that precipitated at 0-40, 40-60, and 60-80% etha¬ nol concentrations were collected at 4°C. The precipitated materials were freeze-dried, stored at -76°C, and resuspend- ed into 10 ml of water containing 0.5 ml of 5% Tween-20. Reconstituted fractions were tested in the immunothrombocy- themic mouse assay. Bars represent the average of 5 sepa¬ rate experiments (Lots) using 12 grams of crude starting material for each Lot. Vertical lines represent the SE, ***P <o.0005. As shown, in five separate experiments the polypeptide activity was localized in the 0- 40% ethanol fraction, as indicated by a highly significant (P <0.0005) increase in % ³⁵ S incorporation into platelets of- assay mice (average 182% of saline-control values) . Proteins precipi¬ tated at 40-60% and 60-80% ethanol concentrations did not contain significant polypeptide activity when tested in the mouse bioassay. Figure 4B shows a dose-response relation¬ ship between the amounts of polypeptide-rich material pre¬ cipitated at 0-40% ethanol concentration and % ³⁵ S incorpora¬ tion into platelets of assay mice (r ² = 0.97, P <0.0005). This step represents a further 3-fold purification of poly- peptide or a purification factor of 25 from the starting material (Table 1) .

Figure 5 shows the results of subjecting the 0-40% ethanol fraction to preparative SDS-PAGE. The gel on the left contains the MW standards and the gel on the right shows the results of electrophoresing 2.21 milligrams of the 0-40% ethanol polypeptide-rich protein in each tube. The gels were cut as indicated, and the proteins were extracted and assayed in the bioassay for polypeptide, 5 mice/group. Only Fraction 7 (-15 Kd MW material) stimulated platelet production in the mouse (*P <0.025). As illustrated, sever¬ al different classes of proteins were still present in the 0-40% ethanol; fraction after staining with Coomassie blue,

but only Fraction 77 (MW of about 15 Kd) contained signifi¬ cant amounts of polypeptide (P <0.025). In Figure 6, a dose-response relationship of Step III, Fraction 7 polypep¬ tide is shown (Table 1) . A highly significant dose-response relationship (r =0.95, P <0.0005) with 19.6 U/mg of protein was found. This step represents a further 6-fold purifica¬ tion or about 150-fold purification over the starting mate¬ rial (Table 1) .

The post-SDS-PAGE material was then subjected to RP-HPLC. As illustrated in Figure 7, polypeptide was found in an area of low protein content that eluted from the column before the major protein peak, i.e.. Fraction 3 (P <0.01). All other fractions gave % ³⁵ S incorporation into platelet values that were not significantly elevated over the values obtained by saline-treatment. The column was a Brownlee C03- Gu, C8, 4.6 x 30 mm; buffer A was 0.01 M NaH ₂ P0 ₄ , pH 6.7; buffer B was 20% buffer A in CH ₃ CN; flow rate was 200 μl/min. at 22°C. A Beckman HPLC system was used. Each fraction was collected for 9 minutes, the mate- rial was dialyzed against distilled water using 1000 MW cutoff membranes, lyophilized to dryness, and resuspended into saline for testing in the immunothromboσythemic mouse assay. Open circles represent the polypeptide content of each fraction (shown by horizontal bars) and saline; the closed circle represents the polypeptide content of the starting material. Vertical bars represent the SE *P <0.01, **P <0.005. Dose-response experiments indicated that this product had a specific activity; of "8,800 U/mg of protein, representing a purification factor of "68,000 over the starting material (Table 1, Step IVa) .

Figure 8 shows the results of another experiment in which the post-SDS-PAGE polypeptide was subjected to RP- HPLC. In this experiment the area that was shown to have significant bioactivity in the previous study (Figure 7) was further subdivided into 10 fractions and tested in the mouse assay for polypeptide. One of the subfractions (Fraction F) contained significant polypeptide bioactivity (P <0.025).

This material was highly potent, about 21,000 U/mg protein (Table 1, Step IVb) and represents a purification factor of about 164,000-fold.

The highly purified polypeptide (Step IVb, Frac- tion 3F) was iodinated and subjected to chromatofocusing using a gradient of Polybuffer 74 and imidazole-HCl. The elution pattern of ¹²⁵ i-TSF from the column showed a single, sharp band of isoelectric pH 4.47, with a peak width of 0.01 pH units (Figure 9) . Figure 10 shows the results of apply- ing the ^{1 5} I-TSF to vertical slab-SDS-PAGE in non-denaturing buffers, staining with silver, and exposing the gel to film for an autoradiograph. Although no visible bands were present with silver staining, the autoradiograph showed a single band with a MW of 30 Kd. The ¹²⁵ ι polypeptide ap- pears to be homogeneous as judged by both chromatofocusing and autoradiography of SDS-PAGE.

Molecular Weight Determination of TSF: Figure 11 shows the results of subjecting the polypeptide-rich post- SDS-PAGE material (Step III, Fraction 7) to additional electrophoresis after dialysis and lyophilization using both denaturing and nondenaturing conditions. As shown in Figure 11A, after electrophoresis in denaturing buffers and stain¬ ing with Coomassie blue there was a single protein band at 15 Kd. Figure 11B shows the same material that was used in Figure 11A, but the protein was dialyzed in a weak phosphate buffer, lyophilized and subjected to SDS-PAGE without boil¬ ing or the use of strong denaturing conditions. As shown, materials that were previously shown to migrate at ^" 15 Kd MW were found to electrophorese to "30 Kd MW. This finding leads to the conclusion that the present polypeptide has the ability to self-associate in non-denaturing conditions and exist as a dimer.

In the present invention a four-step procedure is used, consisting of Sephadex column chromatography, ethanol precipitation, SDS-PAGE, and RP-HPLC for the purification of the polypeptide. With the aid of Tween-20, the final product maintained its biological activity for several weeks

at - 76°C. The purified polypeptide was very potent (21,000 U/mg protein) and migrated on SDS-PAGE and chromatofocused as a homogeneous product.

Tween-20 aided significantly in maintaining the biological activity of polypeptide. The data (Figure 1) showed that Tween-20, without altering platelet production itself, protected the polypeptide from denaturation and helped in maintaining its biological activity after long periods of incubation at room temperature. In the present invention it has been found that by using partially purified polypeptide-rich preparations, significant amounts of polypeptide were precipitated with ethanol concentrations of 0-40% (Figure 4) as compared to the use of 40% or greater ethanol concentrations. It ap- pears that during the purification of polypeptide in accord¬ ance with the present disclosure, chemicals were removed that significantly affected the precipitation characteris¬ tics by ethanol. Further, in the present invention, method used was particularly successful in removing albumin from polypeptide. It is postulated that partial separation of albumin from the polypeptide moiety may have influenced the hydrophobic interactions of organic solvents to the polypep¬ tide, leading to the requirement for different percentages of ethanol for its precipitation. In any event, the data show quite clearly that partially purified polypeptide, prepared by Sephadex chromatography, precipitates at 0-40% ethanol concentrations.

The purified polypeptide of the present work was highly active. It should be noted that Tween-20 was used to protect the molecule from denaturation. The use of this protection agent allowed the use of drastic purification procedures, to include RP-HPLC with acetonitrile buffers and heating the protein to 100°C for 10 minutes prior to plac¬ ing it on polyacrylamide gels. These procedures appear to be necessary for the separation of polypeptide from albumin, leading to a purified preparation suitable for amino acid sequencing. The results indicate that these procedures, in

the presence of Tween-20, released the polypeptide molecule free of albumin in a stable, purified moiety.

The polypeptide produced by the disclosed method showed an isoelectric pH of 4.47 (Figure 9). The purified material was well-focused with a single, sharp peak and appeared to be a homogeneous protein (Figure 10) .

As shown herein, the MW of the polypeptide varied depending upon the method of separation that was used for its preparation. Boiling the preparations for 10 minutes in the presence of denaturing reagents, before applying to SDS-PAGE, yields a 15 Kd protein band that contains most of the polypeptide bioactivity (Figures 5 & 6) . However, if the 15 Kd MW polypeptide (Figure 11A) is processed in non- denaturing conditions, it was shown to self-associate to yield a ^" 30 Kd MW protein (Figur 11B) .