Programmed death-1 (PD-1), a member of CD28 family, is able to negatively regulate the TCR complex-initiated signaling by interacting with its cognate ligands (PD-L1 and/or PD-L2). PD-1/PD-L1 pathway plays an important role in down-regulating the effective phase of adaptive immune responses and the blockade of this pathway has been proved to enhance antiviral and antitumoral immunity, suggesting that it might be a potential target for the development of therapies to improve T cell responses in patients with virus infections or malignancies. In present study, the extracellular domain of human PD-1 with a carboxyl terminal His-tag (designated as sPD-1) was expressed as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli. The product was on-column refolded, purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography, and characterized by Western blotting. Furthermore, the soluble PD-1 with high purity possessed specific binding activity with its cognate ligand PD-L1, and the dissociation constant was 0.43 nmol/L as determined by Scatchard plot analysis. These results suggest that refolded sPD-1 from prokaryotic cells may be of therapeutic interest in enhancing antivirus and antitumoral immune responses. PD-1 / PD (PD-1), a member of CD28 family, is able to negatively regulate the TCR complex-initiated signaling by interacting with its cognate ligands (PD-L1 and / or PD-L2) -L1 pathway plays an important role in down-regulating the effective phase of adaptive immune responses and the blockade of this pathway has been proved to enhance antiviral and antitumoral immunity, suggesting that it might be potential target for the development of therapies to improve T cell responses in patients with virus infections or malignancies. In present study, the extracellular domain of human PD-1 with a carboxyl terminal His-tag (designated as sPD-1) was expressed as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli. The product was on- column refolded, purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography, and characterized by Western blotting. Furthermore, the soluble PD-1 with high purity possessed specific binding activity with its cognate ligand PD-L1, and the dissociation constant was 0.43 nmo These results suggest that refolded sPD-1 from prokaryotic cells may be of therapeutic interest in enhancing antivirus and antitumoral immune responses.