Bioactive Peptides: An Understanding from Current Screening Methodology

Abstract

Bioactive peptides with high potency against numerous human disorders have been regarded as a promising therapy in disease control. These peptides could be released from various dietary protein sources through hydrolysis processing using physical conditions, chemical agents, microbial fermentation, or enzymatic digestions. Considering the diversity of the original proteins and the complexity of the multiple structural peptides that existed in the hydrolysis mixture, the screening of bioactive peptides will be a challenge task. Well-organized and well-designed methods are necessarily required to enhance the efficiency of studying the potential peptides. This article, hence, provides an overview of bioactive peptides with an emphasis on the current strategy used for screening and characterization methods. Moreover, the understanding of the biological activities of peptides, mechanism inhibitions, and the interaction of the complex of peptide–enzyme is commonly evaluated using specific in vitro assays and molecular docking analysis.