Comparative study of protease hydrolysis reaction demonstrating Normalized Peptide Bond Cleavage Frequency and Protease Substrate Broadness Index

PLoS One. 2020 Sep 21;15(9):e0239080. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239080. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Two commercial proteases (subtilisin-typed FNA from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, and chymotrypsin-like NPP from Nocardiopsis prasina), porcine pepsin, porcine pancreatin having protease activity and their combinations were studied in vitro by LC-MS for their ability to digest soy protein isolate (SPI) under conditions close to those found in the stomach (pH 3.7) and small intestine (pH 6.5). The total number of peptides generated, and their size distribution were obtained under each set of the digestion conditions. These peptides were grouped according to their C-terminal amino acid (AA) residue (P1) and mass, based on which two concepts were proposed, i.e., Normalized Peptide Bond Cleavage Frequency (NPBCF) and Protease Substrate Broadness Index (PSBI). At pH 3.7, FNA+pepsin increased PSBI vs. pepsin alone by 2.7 and 4.9 percentage points (p.p.) at a SPI:protease ratio of 20:1 and 100:1, respectively. At pH 6.5, FNA+pancreatin improved PSBI by 9.1 and 10.2 p.p. at SPI:protease 20:1 and 100:1, respectively, vs. pancreatin alone. NPP generated 38% more peptides than FNA when administered with pancreatin at SPI:protease 200:1:1 and pH 6.5, but FNA alone (28.9) or FNA+pancreatin (29.1) gave a higher PSBI than pancreatin (22.2), NPP (20.3) and NPP+pancreatin (22.0). At pH 3.7 FNA generated 59% and 39% of peptides of pepsin at SPI:protease of 20:1 and 100:1, respectively, and both groups of peptides had similar size distribution. At pH 6.5 more small sized peptides were generated by FNA or FNA+pancreatin than pancreatin and NPP alone or pancreatin+NPP. In conclusion, FNA showed complementary effects with pepsin and pancreatin in terms of PSBI and generated more small sized peptides compared to NPP.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Actinobacteria / enzymology
  • Animals
  • Bacillus amyloliquefaciens / enzymology
  • Digestion
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Hydrolysis
  • Nocardiopsis
  • Peptide Hydrolases / metabolism*
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides / metabolism*
  • Soybean Proteins / chemistry
  • Soybean Proteins / metabolism*
  • Substrate Specificity
  • Swine

Substances

  • Peptides
  • Soybean Proteins
  • Peptide Hydrolases

Supplementary concepts

  • Nocardiopsis prasina

Grants and funding

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company provided support in the form of R&D budget for all authors. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision if it should be published or not and on how to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.