Purification and Characterization of Antioxidant Peptides from Oyster (Saccostrea cucullata) Hydrolysate and the Anticancer Activity of Hydrolysate on Human Colon Cancer Cell Lines

The focus of the study was to investigate antioxidant activity and characterize antioxidant peptides from oyster (Saccostrea cucullata) protein hydrolysate. The protease hydrolysate of oyster exhibited strong potential to donate hydrogen and was able to scavenge Hydrogen peroxide, Hydroxyl and DPPH radicals. Due to the high antioxidant potential, hydrolysate was purified in Sephadex G-25 gel filtration chromatography. The active peptide fraction was further purified by UPLC-MS. Totally seven antioxidant peptides were collected. Among seven peptides (SCAP 1–7), three peptides (SCAP 1, 3 and 7) had highest scavenging ability on DPPH radicals. The amino acid sequence and molecular mass of purified antioxidant peptides (SCAP1, SCAP3 and SCAP7) were determined by Q-TOF ESI mass spectroscopy and structures of the peptides were Leu-Ala-Asn-Ala-Lys (MW = 515.29 Da), Pro-Ser-Leu-Val-Gly-Arg-Pro–Pro-Val-Gly-Lys-Leu-Thr-Leu (MW = 1,432.89 Da) and Val-Lys-Val-Leu-Leu-Glu-His-Pro-Val-Leu (MW = 1,145.75 Da), respectively. The oyster hydrolysate was tested for cell cytotoxicity on Vero (kidney epithelial cells of the African Green Monkey) and HT-29 (human colon carcinoma) cell lines. It was found that the hydrolysate did not show any cytotoxic effect for Vero cell lines and exerted a significant cytotoxic effect on HT-29 cell lines. We thus conclude that the anticancer and antioxidative hydrolysate from oyster (S. cucullata) may be useful ingredients in food and nutraceutical applications.