Method of isolation of polypeptide-aptamer-polymer conjugates

1. A method for purification of a target in a solution, comprising:

providing a target in a solution, the solution comprising one or more contaminants;

providing a polymer conjugate in the solution, wherein the polymer conjugate is configured to specifically bind the target;

incubating the solution at a first temperature to facilitate binding of the polymer conjugate to the target;

providing an environmentally-responsive block copolymer in the solution, wherein the environmentally-responsive block copolymer comprises one or more of an ethylene oxide (EO) block copolymer, a propylene oxide (PO) block copolymer, or an EO/PO block copolymer;

heating the solution comprising the environmentally-responsive block copolymer and the polymer conjugate bound to the target at a second temperature to initiate a liquid-liquid phase separation, wherein the liquid-liquid phase separation produces an aqueous phase and a liquid polymer phase, and wherein the liquid polymer phase comprises the polymer conjugate bound to the target;

separating the aqueous phase from the liquid polymer phase;

treating the liquid polymer phase such that the target dissociates from the polymer conjugate to generate unbound target; and

eluting the unbound target, wherein the unbound target is substantially isolated from the liquid polymer phase after the eluting.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the environmentally-responsive block copolymer is a thermoresponsive block copolymer.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the thermoresponsive block copolymer has a cloud point between 21° C. and 45° C.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer conjugate comprises an aptamer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer of the polymer conjugate is poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM).

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target is selected from one or more of a contaminant and a biotherapeutic protein.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the environmentally-responsive block copolymer comprises one or more of 1000 average molecular weight polypropylene oxide (PPG 1000), 1100 average molecular weight non-ionic tri-block poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) copolymer (Pluronic L31), 725 average molecular weight polypropylene oxide (PPG 725), and 2700 average molecular weight triblock Poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol) copolymer (Pluronic 17R41).

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer of the polymer conjugate is a thermoresponsive polymer, wherein a cloud point of the polymer of the polymer conjugate is different than a cloud point of the environmentally-responsive block copolymer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second temperature is higher than the first temperature, and wherein the second temperature is lower than 45° C.

10. A method for selective purification of a target in a solution, comprising:

binding a target to an aptamer of a polymer-aptamer conjugate in a solution, wherein the aptamer of the polymer-aptamer conjugate is configured to specifically bind the target;

separating the solution into two liquid phases using a thermoresponsive block copolymer, wherein the thermorepsonsive block copolymer is one of an ethylene oxide (EO) block copolymer, a propylene oxide (PO) block copolymer, or an EO/PO block copolymer, wherein the thermoresponsive block copolymer has a cloud point between 25° C. and 41° C., and wherein the two liquid phases comprise an aqueous phase and a liquid polymer phase, and wherein the liquid polymer phase comprises the target bound to the polymer-aptamer conjugate;

extracting the aqueous phase from the liquid polymer phase;

treating the liquid polymer phase such that the target dissociates from the polymer-aptamer conjugate to generate unbound target; and

eluting the target.

11. The method of claim 10 , comprising incubating the solution containing the target and the polymer-aptamer conjugate at a first temperature to facilitate target binding.

12. The method of claim 11 , comprising heating the solution containing the target bound to the polymer-aptamer conjugate and the thermoresponsive block copolymer to a second temperature to initiate the separating, wherein the second temperature is higher than the first temperature.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the target is selected from one or more of a contaminant and a biotherapeutic protein.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the polymer of the polymer-aptamer conjugate is a thermoresponsive polymer, wherein a cloud point of the polymer of the polymer-aptamer conjugate is different than the cloud point of the environmentally-responsive block copolymer.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the target bound to the polymer-aptamer conjugate is not in the aqueous phase after the separating.

16. A method for selective purification of a target in a solution, comprising:

adding a polymer-aptamer conjugate to a solution comprising a target, wherein the polymer-aptamer conjugate is configured to bind the target, wherein the polymer of the polymer-aptamer conjugate comprises a thermoresponsive polymer having a first cloud point, and wherein the aptamer of the polymer-aptamer conjugate comprises a DNA aptamer;

incubating the solution at a first temperature to facilitate binding of the polymer-aptamer conjugate to the target;

adding a thermoresponsive block copolymer to the solution, wherein the thermoresponsive block copolymer is one of an ethylene oxide (EO) block copolymer, a propylene oxide (PO) block copolymer, or an EO/PO block copolymer and has a second cloud point between 25° C. and 41° C.; and

heating the solution at a second temperature to initiate a first liquid-liquid phase separation, wherein the second temperature is higher than the first temperature, wherein the first liquid-liquid phase separation produces a first aqueous phase and a first liquid polymer phase, wherein the first aqueous phase comprises unbound species, and wherein the first liquid polymer phase comprises the target bound to the polymer-aptamer conjugate.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

extracting the aqueous phase from the liquid polymer phase;

reducing heat of solution to a third temperature, wherein the third temperature is lower than the cloud point of the of the thermoresponsive block copolymer;

adding a buffer to the solution, wherein the buffer is configured to unbind the polymer-aptamer conjugate from the target to produce an unbound target;

heating the solution to a fourth temperature to initiate a second liquid-liquid phase separation, wherein the second liquid-liquid phase separation produces a second aqueous phase and a second liquid polymer phase, wherein the second aqueous phase comprises the unbound target, and wherein the second liquid polymer phase comprises the polymer-aptamer conjugate;

removing the second liquid polymer phase; and

eluting the unbound target from the second aqueous phase.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the thermoresponsive block copolymer comprises one of 1000 average molecular weight polypropylene oxide (PPG 1000), 1100 average molecular weight non-ionic tri-block poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) copolymer (Pluronic L31), 725 average molecular weight polypropylene oxide (PPG 725), and 2700 average molecular weight triblock Poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol) copolymer (Pluronic 17R41).