Comparison of selective hydrolysis of α-lactalbumin by acid Protease A and Protease M as alternative to pepsin: potential for ß-lactoglobulin purification in whey proteins.

The experiments reported in this research paper examine the potential of digestion using acidic enzymes Protease A and Protease M to selectively hydrolyse α-lactalbumin (α-La) whilst leaving ß-lactoglobulin (ß-Lg) relatively intact. Both enzymes were compared with pepsin hydrolysis since its selectivity to different whey proteins is known. Analysis of the hydrolysis environment showed that the pH and temperature play a significant role in determining the best conditions for achievement of hydrolysis, irrespective of which enzyme was used. Whey protein isolate (WPI) was hydrolysed using pepsin, Acid Protease A and Protease M by randomized hydrolysis conditions. Reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography was used to analyse residual proteins. Regarding enzyme selectivity under various milieu conditions, all three enzymes showed similarities in the reaction progress and their potential for ß-Lg isolation.

Impact of the environmental conditions and substrate pre-treatment on whey protein hydrolysis: A review.

Proteins in solution are subject to myriad forces stemming from interactions with each other as well as with the solvent media. The role of the environmental conditions, namely pH, temperature, ionic strength remains under-estimated yet it impacts protein conformations and consequently its interaction with, and susceptibility to, the enzyme. Enzymes, being proteins are also amenable to the environmental conditions because they are either activated or denatured depending on the choice of the conditions. Furthermore, enzyme specificity is restricted to a narrow regime of optimal conditions while opportunities outside the optimum conditions remain untapped. In addition, the composition of protein substrate (whether mixed or single purified) have been underestimated in previous studies. In addition, protein pre-treatment methods like heat denaturation prior to hydrolysis is a complex phenomenon whose progression is influenced by the environmental conditions including the presence or absence of sugars like lactose, ionic strength, purity of the protein, and the molecular structure of the mixed proteins particularly presence of free thiol groups. In this review, we revisit protein hydrolysis with a focus on the impact of the hydrolysis environment and show that preference of peptide bonds and/or one protein over another during hydrolysis is driven by the environmental conditions. Likewise, heat-denaturing is a process which is dependent on not only the environment but the presence or absence of other proteins.

Influence of denaturation and aggregation of ß-lactoglobulin on its tryptic hydrolysis and the release of functional peptides.

Whereas previous studies showed that thermal pre-treatment of whey proteins promote their enzymatic hydrolysis, to date no correlation between the conformation of denatured protein and the release of individual peptides has been considered. Hence, in this study total denaturation of ß-lactoglobulin was performed at defined pH-values to enable the generation of different denatured particles. The denatured proteins were used as substrate for tryptic hydrolysis and the hydrolysis progress was characterised by the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and the release of functional peptides, detected using LC-ESI-TOF/MS. Denaturation and subsequent aggregation of ß-lactoglobulin, induced by thermal treatment at pH 5.1, altered the DH slightly, whereas the release of investigated peptides was significantly decreased. Contrary, denaturation at pH 6.8 and 8.0 led to formation of non-native monomers and reduced the DH to 75%, but showed promoting as well as reducing effects on the release of peptides, depending on their location within the protein.

Chymotrypsin selectively digests ß-lactoglobulin in whey protein isolate away from enzyme optimal conditions: potential for native α-lactalbumin purification.

The present study examines the resistance of the α-lactalbumin to α-chymotrypsin (EC 3.4.21.1) digestion under various experimental conditions. Whey protein isolate (WPI) was hydrolysed using randomised hydrolysis conditions (5 and 10% of WPI; pH 7.0, 7.8 and 8.5; temperature 25, 37 and 50 °C; enzyme-to-substrate ratio, E/S, of 0.1%, 0.5 and 1%). Reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was used to analyse residual proteins. Heat, pH adjustment and two inhibitors (Bowman-Birk inhibitor and trypsin inhibitor from chicken egg white) were used to stop the enzyme reaction. While operating outside of the enzyme optimum it was observed that at pH 8.5 selective hydrolysis of ß-lactoglobulin was improved because of a dimer-to-monomer transition while α-la remained relatively resistant. The best conditions for the recovery of native and pure α-la were at 25 °C, pH 8.5, 1% E/S ratio, 5% WPI (w/v) while the enzyme was inhibited using Bowman-Birk inhibitor with around 81% of original α-la in WPI was recovered with no more ß-lg. Operating conditions for hydrolysis away from the chymotrypsin optimum conditions offers a great potential for selective WPI hydrolysis, and removal, of ß-lg with production of whey protein concentrates containing low or no ß-lg and pure native α-la. This method also offers the possibility for production of ß-lg-depleted milk products for sensitive populations.

Preparation of whey protein hydrolysates using a single- and two-stage enzymatic membrane reactor and their immunological and antioxidant properties: characterization by multivariate data analysis.

An initial 5% (w/v), followed thereafter with replacement aliquots of 3% (w/v), whey protein isolate (WPI) (ca. 86.98% Kjeldahl N x 6.38), was hydrolyzed using Protease N Amano G (IUB 3.4.24.28, Bacillus subtilis) in an enzymatic membrane reactor (EMR) fitted with either a 10 or 3 kDa nominal molecular weight cutoff (NMWCO) tangential flow filter (TFF) membrane. The hydrolysates were desalted by adsorption onto a styrene-based macroporous adsorption resin (MAR) and washed with deionized water to remove the alkali, and the peptides were desorbed with 25, 50, and 95% (v/v) ethyl alcohol. The desalted hydrolysates were analyzed for antibody binding, free radical scavenging, and molecular mass analysis as well as total and free amino acids (FAA). For the first time a quantity called IC50, the concentration of peptides causing 50% inhibition of the available antibody, is introduced to quantify inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used for data reduction. The hydrolysate molecular mass provided the most prominent influence (PC1 = 57.35%), followed by inhibition ELISA (PC2 = 18.90%) and the antioxidant properties (PC3 = 10.43%). Ash was significantly reduced in the desalted fractions; the protein adsorption recoveries were high, whereas desorption with alcohol was prominently influenced by the hydrophobic/ hydrophilic amino acid balance. After hydrolysis, some hydrolysates showed increased ELISA reactivity compared with the native WPI.