Recent Advances in Encapsulation, Protection, and Oral Delivery of Bioactive Proteins and Peptides using Colloidal Systems

Abstract

There are many areas in medicine and industry where it would be advantageous to orally deliver bioactive proteins and peptides (BPPs), including ACE inhibitors, antimicrobials, antioxidants, hormones, enzymes, and vaccines. A major challenge in this area is that many BPPs degrade during storage of the product or during passage through the human gut, thereby losing their activity. Moreover, many BPPs have undesirable taste profiles (such as bitterness or astringency), which makes them unpleasant to consume. These challenges can often be overcome by encapsulating them within colloidal particles that protect them from any adverse conditions in their environment, but then release them at the desired site-of-action, which may be inside the gut or body. This article begins with a discussion of BPP characteristics and the hurdles involved in their delivery. It then highlights the characteristics of colloidal particles that can be manipulated to create effective BPP-delivery systems, including particle composition, size, and interfacial properties. The factors impacting the functional performance of colloidal delivery systems are then highlighted, including their loading capacity, encapsulation efficiency, protective properties, retention/release properties, and stability. Different kinds of colloidal delivery systems suitable for encapsulation of BPPs are then reviewed, such as microemulsions, emulsions, solid lipid particles, liposomes, and microgels. Finally, some examples of the use of colloidal delivery systems for delivery of specific BPPs are given, including hormones, enzymes, vaccines, antimicrobials, and ACE inhibitors. An emphasis is on the development of food-grade colloidal delivery systems, which could be used in functional or medical food applications. The knowledge presented should facilitate the design of more effective vehicles for the oral delivery of bioactive proteins and peptides.

Current Evidence on the Bioavailability of Food Bioactive Peptides

“…Additionally, they should not modify the physicochemical and organoleptic properties of the peptide-based food products. Finally, because of the high demand by consumers of “clean-label” food products, carriers manufactures are limited to the use of natural ingredients and biodegradable, generally recognized as safe (GRAS) alternatives [ 209 , 210 ]. This has made it much more difficult to produce food-based delivery systems with the required functional attributes.…”

“…This has made it much more difficult to produce food-based delivery systems with the required functional attributes. Therefore, the design of the most suitable delivery systems requires extensive knowledge of the physicochemical and molecular attributes of bioactive peptides (molecular dimmension, electrostatic effects, polarity, solubility, and surface activity) as well as the environmental factors, ingredients interactions, and digestive conditions that can negatively alter the structure and bioactivity of peptides [ 210 , 211 ]. The most recent delivery systems applied for the encapsulation of food bioactive proteins and/or peptides and the effects on their stability, bioavailability, and bioactivity are summarized in Table 3 .…”

Bioactive peptides from food fermentation: A comprehensive review of their sources, bioactivities, applications, and future development

“…Several methods for peptides encapsulation are spray drying (Wang & Selomulya, 2020), colloidal (Perry & McClements, 2020), coacervation (Mohan et al, 2015), cold-set gelation (O'Neill et al, 2014), extrusion (de Vos et al, 2010), and electrospinning (Wen et al, 2017). Spray drying is done by suspending BPs in polymer carriers such as maltodextrin, starch, or gum arabic, and the mixture is sprayed through an atomizer in which the liquid evaporates and thereby resulting in a powder form (Wang & Selomulya, 2020).…”

“…Colloidal encapsulation involves the mixing of two immiscible phases to produce a stable emulsion barrier such as single emulsion, double emulsion, Pickering's emulsion, liposomes, solid particles, microgels, and microemulsion (Perry & McClements, 2020). It was reported that less hydrophobic oils have higher peptide release under simulated gastrointestinal conditions, suggesting that peptide release from emulsion occurred through two mechanisms, that is, diffusion across oil phase and lipolytic degradation (Giroux et al., 2016).…”

Innovation in the Seafood Sector through the Valorization of By-Products

“…Permeation enhancers substances can increase the absorption of encapsulated biological active compounds in the gastrointestinal tract. One of the mechanisms of this action is opening the tight junctions of the epithelium cells [73,74]. Chitosan has a mucoadhesive nature and capable to open epithelial connections (tight junctions) of the epithelium cells [75,76].…”