Improving Health-Promoting Effects of Food-Derived Bioactive Peptides through Rational Design and Oral Delivery Strategies

Abstract

Over the last few decades, scientific interest in food-derived bioactive peptides has grown as an alternative to pharmacological treatments in the control of lifestyle-associated diseases, which represent a serious health problem worldwide. Interest has been directed towards the control of hypertension, the management of type 2 diabetes and oxidative stress. Many food-derived antihypertensive peptides act primarily by inhibiting angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE), and to a lesser extent, renin enzyme activities. Antidiabetic peptides mainly inhibit dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-IV) activity, whereas antioxidant peptides act through inactivation of reactive oxygen species, free radicals scavenging, chelation of pro-oxidative transition metals and promoting the activities of intracellular antioxidant enzymes. However, food-derived bioactive peptides have intrinsic weaknesses, including poor chemical and physical stability and a short circulating plasma half-life that must be addressed for their application as nutraceuticals or in functional foods. This review summarizes the application of common pharmaceutical approaches such as rational design and oral delivery strategies to improve the health-promoting effects of food-derived bioactive peptides. We review the structural requirements of antihypertensive, antidiabetic and antioxidant peptides established by integrated computational methods and provide relevant examples of effective oral delivery systems to enhance solubility, stability and permeability of bioactive peptides.

Characteristics of Potential Protein Nutraceuticals of Plant Origin with Antioxidant Activity

“…(1) 6 , LW (1) 6 , VYV (1) 6 , MHI 1 0.0372 (0.0242-0.0477) LQPGQGQQ (2) 5 , LQPGQGQQG (2) 5 , GYY (9) 5 (10) (12) (17) 2 (18) (20) (22), EL (1) 5 (2) 3 (3) 4 , WY (1) 7 (2), WYY (1) 7 (2), RYY (1) 6 , YYL (1) (2) 5 , YYS (1) 5 , SYY (1) 11 , PWY (1) 4 , PW (1) 10 , LK (2) 2 (3) 4 , WG (1) 12 , ACQ (1) 4 , PWS (1) 6 , MM, LH, HL, PYY, LHQ, RHY, QYP (4), LWG (1) 2 , PHQ (1) 2 , KP (1) 2 (2), LW ( 4 (2) 8 (3) 3 (6) (7), LK (1) 5 (2) 4 (3), EL (1) 7 (2) 3 (3) 5 , RYY (1) 9 (2) 2 , SYY (1) 10 , WG (1) 13 , ACQ (1) 7 51 , AH (1) 18 , IY (1) 24 , RHE (1) 12 , IQY (1) 12 , IR (1) 55 , VY (1) 29 (2) 6 , AY…”

“…Certain nutraceuticals exhibit antioxidant activity and contribute to decreasing the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formed in the body [4,5]. ROS play a significant role in the metabolism and the ageing of living organisms.…”

“…The compounds that may have beneficial effects on the human body also include certain amino acids [3], peptides [5] and proteins [2,3], including enzymatic proteins [2,3,[6][7][8]. Nutraceuticals are also biologically active peptides (BAPs), also referred to as biopeptides (BPs), which exhibit a broad spectrum of effects on the human body, including possible antioxidant activity [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. They may be formed both under physiological conditions of the body, including in the human gastrointestinal tract under the influence of endogenous proteolytic enzymes, and also in food during various technological processes applied during food production and processing as well as fermentation processes [5,[9][10][11].…”

“…Nutraceuticals are also biologically active peptides (BAPs), also referred to as biopeptides (BPs), which exhibit a broad spectrum of effects on the human body, including possible antioxidant activity [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. They may be formed both under physiological conditions of the body, including in the human gastrointestinal tract under the influence of endogenous proteolytic enzymes, and also in food during various technological processes applied during food production and processing as well as fermentation processes [5,[9][10][11]. Antioxidant peptides of food origin are regarded as safe and are characterised by high biological activity and are more readily absorbed by the body [5,13,14].…”

“…Proteins are a source of biopeptides of natural origin, including antioxidant biopeptides [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. The amino acid composition of these biopolymers is determined by their type and origin of proteins (e.g., animal or plant).…”