Patent ID: 7435727

Claim:
A complex formed by a purified 145 kDa protein capable of specifically binding cholesterol absorption inhibitors isolated by the method comprising the steps of: i) incubating mammalian intestinal tissue or cells with a photoreactive 2-azetidinone compound which is radioactively labeled and which is able to specifically bind to said protein, ii) solubilizing said intestinal cells and separating the supernatant from the cell debris, iii) adding said supernatant to wheat germ lectin agarose, iv) applying the eluate of said wheat germ lectin agarose to a hydroxylapatite column, v) loading the radioactively labeled fractions from said hydroxylapatite column onto a preparative SDS-PAGE and, vi) collecting the radioactively labeled fractions and said compound in step (i) has the following structure.