Ricerc@Sapienza

Native peptides from sea bass muscle were analyzed by two different approaches: medium-sized peptides by peptidomics analysis, whereas short peptides by suspect screening analysis employing an inclusion list of exact m/z values of all possible amino acid combinations (from 2 up to 4). The method was also extended to common post-translational modifications potentially interesting in food analysis, as well as non-proteolytic aminoacyl derivatives, which are well-known taste-active building blocks in pseudo-peptides.

In the present paper, bioactive peptides from cauliflower by-products (leaves and stems) were investigated. Alcalase® protein hydrolysis time and pH conditions were optimized, then the hydrolysates were fractionated by preparative RP-HPLC into 12 fractions. Each fraction was tested for the ABTS (2,2′-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)), and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity and for ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitor activity.

Microalgae are unicellular marine organisms that have promoted complex biochemical pathways to survive in greatly competitive marine environments. They could contain significant amounts of high-quality proteins which, because of their structural diversity, contain a range of yet undiscovered novel bioactive peptides. In this work, a peptidomic platform was developed for the separation and identification of bioactive peptides in protein hydrolysates.

Short peptides, namely di- tri- and tetra peptides, have been proven to play an important diagnostic role in several diseases. Therefore, the development of an analytical approach for their detection and identification is nowadays an important research goal. This paper describes an analytical procedure able to overcome the issues of short peptide isolation, clean-up and identification in plasma samples. Four different protocols were compared and tested to maximize both recovery and total number of identifications of short circulating plasma endogenous peptides.