Green seaweed Ulva lactuca, a potential source of bioactive peptides revealed by in silico analysis

Abstract

The green seaweed Ulva lactuca is found in coastal areas. Potential bioactive peptides have a wide range of uses, including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, alpha-amylase inhibitory, antiamnestic, ACE inhibitory, immunomodulatory, anticancer, antioxidative, contracting, anti-inflammatory, and more. This study's major goal was to use in-silico methods to reveal the availability and abundance of putative bioactive peptides in the RuBisCO protein of Ulva lactuca seaweed. The protein sequence was obtained using the UniProtKB database. The peptide sequences were produced by using the BIOPEP-UWM enzyme activity tool. The peptides were ranked using PeptideRanker, and the toxicity profile was assessed using ToxinPred. For the first time, the current in-silico investigation depicts the pharmacological characteristics of Ulva lactuca by focusing on the RuBisCO protein. Numerous bioactive peptides with inhibitory activity against the angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE), dipeptidyl peptidase IV, antioxidant, dipeptidyl peptidase III, renin, antithrombotic, antiamnestic, α-glucosidase, anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic activity, and ion flow regulation were produced by the in-silico proteolysis of rubisco using 18 proteases. Based on the cutoff score >0.75, pancreatic elastase liberated the most bioactive peptide sequences from the rubisco compared to other proteases. Additionally, PeptideRanker's findings showed that a number of di-, tri-, and/or polypeptides produced from the RuBisCO have a great deal of potential to be used as bioactive peptides. These studies open up new opportunities for these bioactive peptides in the fields of pharmacy, medicine, the food sector, and marine biotechnology.