Development of new technology for removing viruses from water environment

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Virus-binding proteins (VBPs) are bacterial proteins to which human viruses preferentially adsorb in water environment. VBPs were discovered from a bacterial culture derived from activated sludge with affinity chromatography assay in which a viral capsid peptide was used as a ligand. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel technology using VBPs for virus removal from environmental water. Achievements described below were obtained during the 3-year study duration.At the first year of the study duration, the scale-up of VBP production and purification was conducted in order to obtain large amount of VBP. A handmade column for VBP purification was constructed, which made it possible to obtain about 10 times larger volume of VBP than conventional procedure.At the second year, gene of hexalysine-tagged VBP (LysTagVBP), which has 6-consecutive lysine residues in its C terminus, was fabricated with PCR, and used for production of LysTagVBP with E. coli. Then, polylysine region in LysTagVBP was coupled with the surface of glass particles using silane coupling reagent and glutaraldehyde. The creation of LysTagVBP directly linked to the effective immobilization of VBP on carrier surface.At the third year of the study duration, the virus-removing column in which LysTagVBP was immobilized was constructed, and virus removal efficiency with the column was evaluated. As a result, about 40% of viruses were reduced during the first 1-hour operation, and 70% of viruses were removed after the 3-hour operation. The development of virus removal technology using VBPs is a totally new challenge, and the achievements with regards to the utilization of VBPs as viral adsorbent would be useful in the farther application of VBPs to virus removal from water.