Goat casein peptides and their potential through an <i>in silico</i> approach

Abstract

The caprine caseins αs1, αs2, β, and κ from UniProtKB were characterised for amino acid profile, and hydrolysed in silico with pepsin or trypsin. The generated peptides were characterised for physical-defined properties, bioactive potential, Boman index, toxicity and allergenicity. The peptides generated are bioactive, predominating dipeptidyl peptidase IV and ACE inhibitors activities. Only two peptides are toxic, and most have been proposed to be allergenic by Allergen Online or SDAP, because they have < 50% identity with other confirmed allergenic proteins, including bovine milk caseins, however, they were considered non-allergenic by the methods MEME/MAST and BLAST in Algpred, requiring more studies for better evaluation. Despite of variations, bioinformatics tools are useful before bench tests, because allows time and cost savings, and provides studies projection for use by pharmaceutical and food industries, besides to identify sequences that may need other tests to evaluate the safety before being introduced in use.