Patent ID: 7252828

Claim:
An isolated pure staphylococcal capsular polysaccharide/adhesin antigen (PS/A) having a molecular weight of greater than 100,000 daltons wherein the staphylococcal PS/A is prepared according to a process comprising: preparing an impure PS/A from a staphylococcal culture; incubating the impure PS/A from said staphylococcal culture with a strong base or a strong acid to produce a semi-pure PS/A preparation; neutralizing the semi-pure PS/A preparation with an acid or base; precipitating the neutralized semi-pure PS/A preparation with an alcohol followed by molecular sieve chromatography and digestion with a proteinase; incubation of the proteinase-digested PS/A preparation with a base followed by neutralization with an acid; incubation of the neutralized proteinase-digested PS/A preparation with hydrofluoric acid followed by neutralization with NaOH and precipitation with an alcohol to produce the isolated pure PS/A, wherein the isolated pure PS/A is greater than 92% free of contaminants and contains less than 10% galactose.