Identification and Characterization of Edible Cricket Peptides on Hypertensive and Glycemic In Vitro Inhibition and Their Anti-Inflammatory Activity on RAW 264.7 Macrophage Cells.

Felicia Hall,Andrea M Liceaga,Lavanya Reddivari

doi:10.3390/nu12113588

Abstract

Recent studies continue to demonstrate the potential of edible insects as a protein base to obtain bioactive peptides applicable for functional food development. This study aimed at identifying antihypertensive, anti-glycemic, and anti-inflammatory peptides derived from the in vitro gastrointestinal digests of cricket protein hydrolysates. After sequential fractionation, the protein digest subfraction containing the lowest molecular weight (<0.5 kDa), hydrophobic (C18) and cationic peptides (IEX) was found responsible for the most bioactivity. The cationic peptide fraction significantly reduced (p < 0.05) α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) activity in vitro, and also inhibited the expression of NF-κB in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. A total of 28 peptides were identified with mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) and de novo sequencing from the potent fraction. Three novel peptides YKPRP, PHGAP, and VGPPQ were chosen for the molecular docking studies. PHGAP and VGPPQ exhibited a higher degree of non-covalent interactions with the enzyme active site residues and binding energies comparable to captopril. Results from this study demonstrate the bioactive potential of edible cricket peptides, especially as ACE inhibitors.

Highlights

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are currently the number one cause of death globally, estimating about 18 million lives per year
More than 50% of the native cricket proteins were above 10 kDa (Figure 1b) The alcalase proteolysis (3.0% E:S; 80 min) resulted in cricket protein hydrolysates (CPH) consisting mostly of peptides
Despite the effect of the protein hydrolysates and cationic peptide fractions on the NF-κB expression in macrophage cells, it should be noted that we did not observe a clear relationship between sample concentration and their biological effect

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are currently the number one cause of death globally, estimating about 18 million lives per year. Anti-inflammatory diets are recommended to prevent, treat, and manage CVD and its related risk factors [1]. While fruits and vegetables are undoubtedly associated with preventing CVD risk factors, food proteins and peptides with biological activities were identified, suggesting their potential use as nutraceuticals and functional food ingredients for health promotion [2]. There is an emerging interest in the potential of insect proteins as sources of bioactive agents. Studies are continuously demonstrating various biologically active properties such as antidiabetic, antihypertensive, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties [6,7,8].

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