Issue 6, 2020

Antioxidant and anti-aging effects of a sea cucumber protein hydrolyzate and bioinformatic characterization of its composing peptides

Abstract

Sea cucumbers have been used as food delicacies and traditional medicine for centuries, and their health benefits are partly attributed to their repertoire of proteins. Peptides prepared from the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus are reported to have in vitro antioxidant activities. Here, we investigated the in vivo antioxidant capacity of AjPH, a peptide-rich A. japonicus protein hydrolyzate, and found that AjPH is capable of increasing the survival rate and reducing the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level in the animal model Caenorhabditis elegans under increased oxidative stress induced by paraquat. AjPH is also shown to enhance the antioxidant defense system in paraquat-exposed nematodes, including upregulation of superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and reduction of malondialdehyde contents. To explore underpinning antioxidant mechanisms, cellular and chemical assays were used to demonstrate that AjPH not only reduces ROS accumulation in cells but also directly scavenges DPPH free radicals. Further studies indicate that AjPH can decrease age pigments and extend lifespan but does not reduce food intake, body length and brood size of the nematodes, demonstrating its capacity to delay physiological aging. Using activity-guided fractionation by ultrafiltration and gel filtration, we then isolated antioxidant fractions from AjPH and identified the sequences of their composing peptides, which were subjected to in silico analysis for prospective motifs, physicochemical properties and antioxidant potential. Taken together, our results provide an insight into the nutraceutical potential of the sea cucumber protein hydrolyzate for aging and related conditions and also a basis for future mechanistic studies of individual antioxidant peptides.

Graphical abstract: Antioxidant and anti-aging effects of a sea cucumber protein hydrolyzate and bioinformatic characterization of its composing peptides

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Mar 2020
Accepted
18 May 2020
First published
19 May 2020

Food Funct., 2020,11, 5004-5016

Antioxidant and anti-aging effects of a sea cucumber protein hydrolyzate and bioinformatic characterization of its composing peptides

K. Guo, L. Su, Y. Wang, H. Liu, J. Lin, P. Cheng, X. Yin, M. Liang, Q. Wang and Z. Huang, Food Funct., 2020, 11, 5004 DOI: 10.1039/D0FO00560F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements