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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Protein Biochemistry for Basic and Applied Sciences
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1444457

Anticarcinogenic Cationic Peptides Derived from Tryptic Hydrolysis of β-Lactoglobulin

Provisionally accepted
Eman Ibrahem Eman Ibrahem 1Ali Osman Ali Osman 1Hefnawy Taha Hefnawy Taha 1Mohamed F Abo El-Maati Mohamed F Abo El-Maati 1Basel Sitohy Basel Sitohy 2*Mahmoud Sitohy Mahmoud Sitohy 1
  • 1 Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Al Sharqia, Egypt
  • 2 Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigated the tryptic hydrolysis of β-lactoglobulin (BLG) for 30, 60, 90, and 120 min at 1/200 E/S (enzyme/substrate ratio, w/w) to prepare potentially anticarcinogenic peptides. The properties of hydrolysates were characterized, including degree of hydrolysis, free amino acids, SDS-PAGE, FTIR, and antioxidant activity employing DPPH-assay, β-carotene /linoleic acid, and FRAP assay. BLG tryptic hydrolysate produced after 60 min hydrolysis recorded the highest antioxidant activity, and LCMS analysis revealed 162 peptides of molecular masses ranging from 800 to 5671Da, most of them are of hydrophobic nature. Within the low-MW peptide group (24 peptides), there were 9 hydrophobic basic (HB) and 7 hydrophobic acidic (HA), representing 38% and 29%, respectively. The HB peptides may be responsible for the considerable biological activity of the hydrolysate. with dominant basic character supporting the carcinogenic activity of this hydrolysate. The in vitro anticancer activity against Mcf-7, Caco-2, and A-549 human cancer cell lines proliferation by MTT assay recorded IC50% at 42.8, 76.92, and 45.93 µg/mL, respectively. Treating each cell line with IC50% of the hydrolysate for 24 h increased the apoptosis by enhancing the expression of caspase-9 by 5.66, 7.97, and 3.28 folds over the untreated control and inhibited angiogenesis by reducing VEGFR-2 expression by about 56, 76, and 70 %, respectively, indicating strong anticancer and antiangiogenic actions on human cancer cells. BLG tryptic hydrolysate may serve as a natural anticarcinogenic agent.The results of this study demonstrated that BLG hydrolysates have direct anticancer and antiangiogenic effects on human cancer cells. The chemical composition and characteristics of the BLG tryptic hydrolysate influence these biological and anticancer activities. The tryptic hydrolysates were generally effective against the three cancer cell lines studied . This effectiveness was assessed by measuring cell proliferation using the MTT assay and by evaluating their impact on angiogenesis through inhibition of VEGFR-2 activity. Future studies may focus on enhancing the anticarcinogenic effectiveness of the peptides by

    Keywords: β-Lactoglobulin, Trypsin, antioxidant activity, Anticancer activity, caspase, VEGFR-2

    Received: 05 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ibrahem, Osman, Taha, Abo El-Maati, Sitohy and Sitohy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Basel Sitohy, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

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