Pepsin-pancreatin hydrolysis reduced the ability of lunasin-enriched material to inhibit activation of the inflammasomes in THP-1 human macrophages.

Inflammation caused by the NLRP3 inflammasome has been linked to many diseases. Lunasin is a bioactive peptide from soybeans with reported anti-inflammatory properties. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of pepsin-pancreatin hydrolysis (PPH) on the ability of lunasin-enriched preparation (LEP) to inhibit inflammasome activation in differentiated THP-1 human macrophages. THP-1 macrophages were treated with different concentrations of LEP (0.0625 to 0.25 mg mL-1), primed with 1 µg mL-1 lipopolysaccharide for 6 h and activated by 5 mM adenosine triphosphate for 1 h. LEP reduced secretion of IL-1ß and IL-18. In addition, LEP treatment inhibited the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in THP-1 human macrophages without affecting the expressions of NLRP3 and ASC proteins involved in inflammasomes. PPH reduced the ability of LEP to inhibit production of intracellular ROS. Our results showed that LEP inhibited activation of inflammasomes by reducing intracellular ROS in vitro which was reduced by PPH.