Abstract
Nutraceuticals have been proposed to exert positive effects on human health and confer protection against many chronic diseases. A major bioactive component of soy-based foods is lunasin peptide, which has potential to exert a major impact on the health of human consumers worldwide, but the biochemical features of dietary lunasin still remain poorly characterized. In this study, lunasin was purified from a soy-based food product via strong anion exchange solid phase extraction and then subjected to top-down mass spectrometry analysis that revealed in detail the molecular diversity of lunasin in processed soybean foods. We detected multiple glycated proteoforms together with potentially toxic advanced glycation end products (AGEs) derived from lunasin. In both cases, modification sites were Lys24 and Lys29 located at the helical region that shows structural homology with a conserved region of chromatin-binding proteins. The identified post-translational modifications may have an important repercussion on lunasin epigenetic regulatory capacity. Taking together, our results demonstrate the importance of proper chemical characterization of commercial processed food products to assess their impact on consumer’s health and risk of chronic diseases.
Highlights
Nutraceuticals have been proposed to exert positive effects on human health and confer protection against many chronic diseases
We used a top-down proteomics approach to study the characteristics of lunasin peptide derived from two different dietary sources – raw soybeans and commercial soybean beverage powder
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDITOF MS) analysis revealed that while the analyzed raw soybean extract contained little or no lunasin, the soybean beverage powder extract displayed a cluster of peptides in the 5000 Da mass range, suggesting the presence of multiple lunasin variants in this product (Fig. 1A,B)
Summary
Nutraceuticals have been proposed to exert positive effects on human health and confer protection against many chronic diseases. Oxidation of Maillard reaction derivatives can result in the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which contribute to the pathophysiology of major human disorders, including diabetes[11] and Alzheimer’s disease[12], by increasing oxidative stress[13] and inflammation[14], which both can promote cancer[15]. From that study a 2.3-fold increase in cancer risk was observed for the highest quartile of total soy intake (≥92.5 g/1000 kcal) after controlling for smoking habits and education Based on this set of divergent studies, we could affirm that the effect of soybean intake on health is still far to be fully elucidated. Thorough understanding the impact on health can only be achieved after comprehensive chemical characterization of soybean nutraceuticals[33]
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