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Antihypertensive, Antidiabetic, and Antioxidant Properties of Novel Azolla pinnata Fern Protein Hydrolysates: Inhibition Mechanism, Stability, Profiling, and Molecular Docking

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Abstract

The Azolla pinnata fern protein was enzymatically hydrolysed with Alcalase, Flavourzyme, and Papain at varying degrees of hydrolysis (10, 20, and 30%) to generate multi-biologically active protein hydrolysates. The extensively hydrolysed (30%) Alcalase-generated hydrolysate (AFPH-AE) was most active demonstrating antihypertensive (ACE inhibition), antidiabetic (DPP-IV, α-glucosidase, and α-amylase inhibition), and antioxidant (DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP) activities. AFPH-AE exhibited an uncompetitive inhibition mode against ACE and α-glucosidase, a mixed inhibition mode against α-amylase, and a noncompetitive inhibition mode against DPP-IV. This hydrolysate was highly stable under different food processing conditions including pH 5, 7, and 8, NaCl up to 150 mM, and a high temperature of 100 °C. The low molecular weight fraction (< 3 kDa) exhibited high biological activities, and a total of 15 low molecular weight bioactive peptides were identified. Molecular docking revealed that the peptide-enzyme interactions were mainly mediated via hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. Overall, these findings reveal the potential of AFPH-AE as a functional and/or nutraceutical ingredient with multifunctional antihypertensive, antidiabetic, and antioxidant effects.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its Supplementary information files).

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Funding

This research was fully funded by Universiti Putra Malaysia under the research grant GP-GPB/2022/9711600.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mohammed S. Qoms, Brisha Arulrajah, Wan Zunairah Wan Ibadullah, Nurul Shazini Ramli & Nazamid Saari

  2. Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Rosnah Shamsudin

  3. Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    De-Ming Chau

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  1. Mohammed S. Qoms
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  2. Brisha Arulrajah
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  4. Nurul Shazini Ramli
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  6. De-Ming Chau
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  7. Nazamid Saari
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Contributions

Mohammed S. Qoms: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, software, formal analysis, data curation, validation, and writing—original draft. Brisha Arulrajah: investigation, formal analysis, and writing—original draft. Wan Zunairah Wan Ibadullah: resources and supervision. Nurul Shazini Ramli: resources and supervision. Rosnah Shamsudin: resources. De-Ming Chau: supervision. Nazamid Saari: conceptualization, supervision, resources, writing—review and editing, and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Nazamid Saari.

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Qoms, M.S., Arulrajah, B., Ibadullah, W.Z.W. et al. Antihypertensive, Antidiabetic, and Antioxidant Properties of Novel Azolla pinnata Fern Protein Hydrolysates: Inhibition Mechanism, Stability, Profiling, and Molecular Docking. Food Bioprocess Technol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-024-03412-1

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