Hydrophobic charge-induction chromatography (HCIC) using 4-mercaptoethylpyridine (4-MEP) as the ligand is used to purify antibodies. The 4-MEP resin ligand has high affinity for antibodies, which makes it difficult to optimize the elution conditions. Recent studies showed that arginine is effective at eluting and purifying antibodies using the HCIC with 4-MEP. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism of the action of arginine on the interaction between butyl gallate (BG) and the 4-MEP resin as a model system for protein-4-MEP interactions. Equilibrium adsorption experiments showed that arginine has a significant effect on the desorption of BG from the 4-MEP resin and, in fact, is found to exhibit a greater effectiveness than guanidine and urea, which are known denaturants. The calculated binding free energy between a BG molecule and a 4-MEP resin ligand molecule using molecular dynamics simulations was qualitatively consistent with the experimental results. A principal component analysis of the simulations showed that arginine molecules intervene in the interaction between the BG and 4-MEP molecules at a distance of 8.5 A by entering the space between the phenol and pyridine planes. The present results suggest that arginine has a unique mechanism of interaction with the phenol pyridine system, which should be associated with the effects of arginine on the protein-4-MEP systems. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.