Quinoa husk peptides reduce melanin content via Akt signaling and apoptosis pathways

Caijing Han; Bingjie Lin; Xinyu Huang; Zhaojie Mao; Xiaoting Kong; Lei Fang; Peng Xue; Anning Wang; Fengxiang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105721

Quinoa husk peptides reduce melanin content via Akt signaling and apoptosis pathways

iScience. 2022 Dec 5;26(1):105721. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105721. eCollection 2023 Jan 20.

Authors

Caijing Han¹, Bingjie Lin¹, Xinyu Huang¹, Zhaojie Mao¹, Xiaoting Kong¹, Lei Fang¹, Peng Xue¹, Anning Wang², Fengxiang Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, 261053 Shandong, China.
² Neurology Department, The First Affiliated Hospital of Weifang Medical University (Weifang People's Hospital), Weifang, 261000 Shandong, China.

Abstract

To improve the treatment of pigmentation disorders, looking for natural and safe inhibitors of melanin synthesis has become an area of research interest. The quinoa husk peptides reportedly elicit various biological activities (e.g., anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-hypertensive, and so forth), but its effects on melanin inhibition remain unknown. In the current study, we purified quinoa husk peptides with 30 and 80% ethanol using a macroporous adsorption resin (DA201-C). Component screening revealed that the 80%-ethanol fraction (i.e., QHP fraction) contained numerous short peptides (84.41%) and hydrophobic amino acids (45.60%), while eliciting a superior tyrosinase [TYR]-inhibition rate, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazil-scavenging rate, reducing activity, and chelating capacity compared to the 30% fraction and was thus applied in subsequent analyses. Differentially expressed genes in the QHP fraction were primarily enriched in the Akt-signaling pathways based on transcriptomics. Thus, we assessed the expression of related proteins and genes in A375 cells and rat skin cells following treatment with QHP.

Keywords: Medical biochemistry; cellular physiology; plant biochemistry.