Abstract: An efficient method for therapeutic treatment of a leukemic patient is disclosed in which the patient's body fluid under external circulation is brought into direct contact with an adsorbent material capable of adsorbing the leukemic cells in the body fluid specifically and selectively. The leukemic cell-adsorbent material, which is used by filling a column to form an adsorbent bed, is a conjugate of a lectin protein extracted from, e.g., Dolichos beans or soybeans coupled with a physiologically inert carrier material such as a polysaccharide in the form of beads or a superparamagnetic material in the form of iron oxide-based magnetic beads.

Abstract: An efficient method for therapeutic treatment of a leukemic patient is disclosed in which the patient's body fluid under external circulation is brought into direct contact with an adsorbent material capable of adsorbing the leukemic cells in the body fluid specifically and selectively. The leukemic cell-adsorbent material, which is used by filling a column to form an adsorbent bed, is a conjugate of a lectin protein extracted from, e.g., Dolichos beans or soybeans coupled with a physiologically inert carrier material such as a polysaccharide in the form of beads or a superparamagnetic material in the form of iron oxide-based magnetic beads.

Abstract: An efficient method for therapeutic treatment of leukemia is provided in which a patient's body fluid during external circulation is brought into direct contact with an adsorbent material capable of specifically and selectively adsorbing leukemic cells in the body fluid. The leukemic cell-adsorbing material is a composite of a lectin protein coupled with a physiologically inert carrier material such as a galactan polysaccharide in the form of beads. The lectin protein may be obtained from a mushroom fungus such as Agrocybe cylindracea or a leguminous seed such as from the jequirity bean plant. The lectin protein and carrier material can be bound by forming chemical linkages between amino groups in the lectin protein and functional groups in the carrier material, and unreacted functional groups of the carrier material may be blocked with an amino acid. A leukemic cell-adsorbing column may be formed by filling the leukemic cell-adsorbing material into a tubular body to form an adsorbent bed.

Abstract: Disclosed is an economical method for the preparation of chondroitin sulfates A and C useful as an effective ingredient of medicaments from fish scales as a waste material discharged from fishery in large quantities. Fish scales are enzymatically decomposed in an aqueous medium in the presence of a protease to isolate the chondroitin sulfate compounds and by-product polypeptides followed by removal of the by-product polypeptides from the aqueous solution by a cation-exchange treatment and then the aqueous solution of the chondroitin sulfate compounds is subjected to fractional precipitation by the addition of ethyl alcohol as the precipitant.

Abstract: Disclosed is an efficient and economical method for the preparation of N-glycolyl neuraminic acid in a high purity from an inexpensive abundant source material. The method comprises dispersing body tissues of an echinodermatous marine animal Cucumaria echinata in an aqueous medium, preferably, using a dry powder of the tissues prepared in advance, in which the tissues are proteolytically decomposed to isolate N-glycolyl neuraminic acid in the form of an aqueous solution containing polypeptides as a by-product, followed by separation of N-glycolyl neuraminic acid from the aqueous solution by removing the polypeptides and purification of the compound in a process utilizing an ion-exchange treatments.