Current Protein and Peptide Science - Volume 14, Issue 3, 2013

Elevated blood pressure or hypertension is one of the fastest growing health problems worldwide. Although the etiology of essential hypertension has a genetic component, dietary factors play an important role. With the high costs and adverse side-effects associated with synthetic antihypertensive drugs and the awareness of the link between diet and health there has been increased focus on identification of food components that may contribute to cardiovascular health. In recent years special interest has been paid to the cardioprotective activity of peptides derived from food proteins including marine proteins. These peptides are latent within the sequence of the parent protein and only become active when released by proteolytic digestion during gastrointestinal digestion or through food processing. Current data on antihypertensive activity of marine-derived protein hydrolysates/peptides in animal and human studies is reviewed herein. Furthermore, products containing protein hydrolysates/peptides from marine origin with antihypertensive effects are discussed.

Marine organisms have long been recognized as rich source of bioactive material with numerous health benefit effects. Among bioactive material, proteins and peptides derived from marine organisms have been shown to inhibit the development of neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. The neuro-protective action of protein and peptide seem to be mediated through direct interaction of absorb protein and peptide with a numerous of cellular and molecular targets with enzyme/ion channels. This contribution presents an overview of marine proteins and peptides neuro-protective effect and their potential application in neuro-protection.

Marine organisms are important sources for bioactive molecules that have been developed into treatments for various diseases. The unusual marine environment associated with chemical diversity constitutes an actually unlimited resource of new active substances in the field of the development of bioactive products. In this review, the molecular diversity of marine peptides is described as well as information about their anti-inflammatory properties and mechanisms of action. Moreover, novel bioactive peptides from sponges, bacterium and microalgae are also described with their pharmacological effects in relation with anti-inflammation.

Recently, there has been a growing in alternative prevents and therapies of marine organisms for metabolic syndrome. Marine-derived bioactive peptides attracted extensive interest due to their numerous health beneficial effects including antioxidant, antihypertensive, anti-diabetes, anti-obesity. The bioactive peptides may provide novel therapeutic applications for the prevention of metabolic syndrome. The facts summarized here may provide improvement of metabolic syndrome by peptides from marine organisms. However, further insightful researches on the prevention of metabolic syndrome by marine peptides in in vivo and clinical studies are needed to firmly establish their therapeutic potency.

Bioactive peptides derived from marine organisms are the focus of current studies because of their numerous health beneficial effects. They exert various biological roles, one of the most crucial of which is the antioxidant effect. Reverse relationship between antioxidant intake and diseases has been approved through plenty of studies. Antioxidant activity of marine peptides can be attributed to in vitro and in vivo free radical scavenging activities. Antioxidant peptides isolated from marine sources may be used as functional ingredients in food formulations to promote consumer health and improve the shelf life of food products. This chapter presents an overview of the antioxidant peptides derived marine resources with the potential utilization in the food as well as pharmaceutical industries.

The development of more effective antithrombotic agents with reduced side risk is necessary for the prevention of thromboembolic events. In recent years, bioactive peptides derived from food proteins have received considerable attention because of their numerous healths beneficial. Based on their amino acids sequences these peptides can exhibit various biological activities including, antihypertensive, antioxidative and antibacterial activities. Moreover, several naturally or food proteins-derived bioactive peptides that could prolong the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and thrombin time (TT) have been isolated. Due to their therapeutic potential in the treatment or prevention of various diseases, bioactive peptides can be used as functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals. Marine organisms represent a valuable source of new bioactive substances including bioactive peptides. This paper presents an overview of the bioactive anticoagulant peptides derived from fish protein sources, as well as the enzymatic proteolysis approach used for the development of these new biopeptides.

Despite the success in antimicrobial development, the rapid emergence of pathogenic bacteria resistance to conventional antibiotics calls for an increased focus on the purification and characterization of new antimicrobials. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are promising candidates in future therapeutics. In addition to their broad array of antimicrobial activity, these peptides show multi advent function to human health. The marine environment is relatively poorly explored in terms of potential pharmaceuticals. It contains a tremendous organism diversity which would be a good source of novel AMPs. In this present review we discuss recent antimicrobial peptides isolated from both marine fish and marine invertebrates. We also mention the isolation and benefit of these marine-derived natural antibiotics.

Biologically active compounds with different modes of action, such as, antiproliferative, antioxidant, antimicrotubule, have been isolated from marine sources, specifically microalgae, cyanobacteria and seaweed. The structural characteristics of these peptides include various unusual amino acid residues, which may be responsible for their properties. Moreover, protein hydrolysates formed by the enzymatic digestion of aquatic and marine by-products are an important source of bioactive peptides. Purified peptides from these sources have been shown to have antioxidant activity and cytotoxic effect on several human cancer cell lines such as HepG2, HeLa, AGS, and MCF-7. These characteristics imply that the use of peptides from marine sources has potential for the prevention and treatment of cancer, and that they might also be useful as molecular models in anticancer drug research. This review focuses about the anticancer activating of peptides were prepared from microalgae in detail.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is accompanied by intractable pain as well as loss of motor and visceral control. As part of an overall strategy in patient rehabilitation and improvement in quality of life, pain management is crucial. Interestingly, SCI patients report pain below the level of injury that has characteristics of neuropathic-type pain. Preclinical studies suggest that a key substrate that underlies the symptoms of neuropathic pain such as spontaneous pain and belowlevel cutaneous hypersensitivity is aberrant activity of spinal dorsal horn neurons. While pharmacotherapies for peripheral neuropathic pain exist, these treatments may lead to adverse side effects in SCI patients, such as muscle weakness and constipation, which may exacerbate existing dysfunctions. Thus, novel therapeutic strategies are needed. One way to limit the adverse effects associated with systemically administered drugs is intrathecal delivery. Intrathecal delivery also directs drug to dorsal horn neurons. Another way to reduce the severity of side effects and to potentially enhance drug efficacy is to utilize combination drug therapy. While the conopeptide ziconotide has demonstrated clinical efficacy for severe chronic pain, a limitation of this drug is its potential for significant side effects. Combinations of conopeptides with currently available drugs as well as with other conopeptides could be an effective means of reducing neuropathic SCI pain.

Bioactive peptides obtained from marine species and marine by-products are showing these days a great interest in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications due to their wide range of biological activities. This mini-review focuses on the potential of marine peptides to be used as appetite suppressive molecules in the prevention and/or in the treatment of obesity syndrome. An important and promising aspect in the fight against obesity is the study of anorexigenic gut hormones, like cholecystokinin (CCK) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), that are synthetized by enteroendocrine cells in the presence of nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract. Recent works which have focused on the interaction between marine peptides and CCK and GLP-1 are here reviewed.

Among bioactive peptides derived from aquatic protein, those with ACE inhibitory activity are receiving special attention. This paper presented an overview of ACE inhibitory peptides derived from aquatic proteins, and the peptide sources were listed. The structure-activity relationship and mechanism of action of ACE inhibitory peptides were also discussed. Finally, the antihypertensive effects of ACE inhibitory peptides derived from marine protein, including short-term and long-term influence, were also discussed.