The present study was focused on the preparation and characterization of the antioxidant peptides by microwave-assisted enzymatic hydrolysis of collagen from sea cucumber Acaudina molpadioides (ASC-Am) obtained from Zhejiang Province in China. The results exhibited the effects of microwave irradiation on hydrolysis of ASC-Am with different protease. Neutrase was selected from the four common proteases (papain, pepsin, trypsin, and neutrase) based on the highest content and DPPH scavenging activity of hydrolysate Fa (Molecular weight < 1 kDa). The content and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity of Fa obtained by hydrolysis of neutrase increased by 100% and 109% respectively at a microwave power of 300 W compared with no microwave irradiation. Five subfractions were obtained after performing the gel filtration chromatography, and the Fa.2 exhibited the highest DPPH scavenging activity. The amino acid analysis showed that the contents of Glutamic acid, Alanine, Tyrosine, and Phenylalanine in fraction Fa.2 increased significantly, but an obvious decrease in the content of Glycine was observed compared to Fa. Four peptides (Fa.2-A, Fa.2-B, Fa.2-C, and Fa.2-D) were purified from Fa.2 by high performance liquid chromatography, and Fa.2-C showed the highest DPPH scavenging activity. The sequence of Fa.2-C was identified as Phenylalanine-Leucine- Alanine-Proline with a half elimination ratio (EC50) of 0.385 mg/mL. The antioxidant activity of Fa.2-C was probably attributed to the small molecular sizes and the presence of hydrophobic amino acid residues in its sequence. This report provided a promising method for the preparation of antioxidant peptides from collagen for food and medicinal purposes.
Antioxidant peptides have elicited interest for the versatility of their use in the food and pharmaceutical industry. In the current study, antioxidant peptides were prepared by microwave-assisted alkaline protease hydrolysis of collagen from sea cucumber (Acaudina molpadioides). The results showed that microwave irradiation significantly improved the degree of hydrolysis of collagen and the hydroxyl radical (OH⋅) scavenging activity of hydrolysate. The content and OH⋅ scavenging activity of collagen peptides with molecular weight ≤ 1 kDa (CPS) in the hydrolysate obtained at 250 W increased significantly compared with the non-microwave-assisted control. CPS could scavenge OH⋅ and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical in a dose-dependent manner. The scavenging activity of OH⋅ and DPPH radical was 93.1% and 41.2%, respectively, at CPS concentration of 1 mg/mL. CPS could significantly promote RAW264.7 cell proliferation and reduce the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) level of H2O2-induced damage in RAW264.7 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, all CPS-treated groups exhibited an increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and a decrease in malondialdehyde (MDA) level compared with the control. These results showed that CPS could effectively protect RAW264.7 cells from H2O2-induced damage, implying the potential utilization of CPS as a natural antioxidant for food and pharmaceutical applications.
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