Lactoferrin Isolation and Hydrolysis from Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Milk and the Antibacterial Activity of Deer Lactoferrin and Its Hydrolysates

Ye Wang; Alaa El-Din A Bekhit; Susan L Mason; James D Morton

doi:10.3390/foods9111711

Lactoferrin Isolation and Hydrolysis from Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Milk and the Antibacterial Activity of Deer Lactoferrin and Its Hydrolysates

Foods. 2020 Nov 21;9(11):1711. doi: 10.3390/foods9111711.

Authors

Ye Wang¹, Alaa El-Din A Bekhit², Susan L Mason¹, James D Morton¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Bioscience, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, Lincoln 7674, New Zealand.
² Department of Food Science, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.

Abstract

Lactoferrin (Lf) and other whey proteins have been isolated from red deer milk for the first time using a three-step anion and cation exchange chromatography protocol. The separated deer Lf was subject to in vitro gastric and duodenal digestions to generate peptides. The purity of the deer Lf and its hydrolysis products were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. The antibacterial activity of the deer Lf and its hydrolysates were investigated and was compared to cow counterpart. Gastric and duodenal digested deer Lf had strong bactericidal activity against E. coli ATCC 25922 with minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) of 280 µM and 402 µM, respectively. These results suggest that deer milk contains bioactive whey proteins and can generate bioactive peptides, which can benefit human health by inhibiting food-borne pathogenic bacteria.

Keywords: E. coli inhibition; alpha-lactalbumin; antibacterial activity; beta-lactoglobulin; deer milk; lactoferrin fractionation; lactoferrin hydrolysis; whey proteins.