Valorizzazione di biomasse vegetali mediante il recupero enzimatico di peptidi bioattivi

Traditional alkaline/acid extraction will be used to produce PM protein isolate. Different proteases will be employed for enzymatic hydrolysis of both PM protein isolate and raw PM. The digestates will be evaluated for protein content, degree of hydrolysis, total amino acid profile and bioactivities (antioxidant, and inhibition of tyrosinase, ACE, DPP-IV) to determine the best extraction protocols. The process will be scaled-up (up to 1.2 Lt in bioreactor) and the resulting digestates will be fractionated by ultrafiltration to obtain fractions enriched with peptides in a specific molecular weight range. All fractions will be screened for target biological activities, to identify the fraction with the highest multi-target potential. The identified fraction will be sequenced by LC-MS/MS followed by an in silico bioactivity and allergenicity assessment and molecular docking simulations. The top-ranking peptides will be chemically synthesized and evaluated in vitro for bioactivities.