Several recent published studies reported that cheese consumption may protect against the onset of cardiovascular diseases and type-2 diabetes due to the presence of bioactive peptides. In the present work, six cheese varieties (the Egyptian traditional cheeses Karish, Domiati and Ras as well as Feta-type, Gouda and Edam cheeses) were characterized for their peptidomics profiles with high-resolution mass spectrometry, biological activities and content in bioactive peptides. The highest ACE-inhibitory and DPP-IV-inhibitory activities were found in Gouda cheese, which also displayed the highest antioxidant activity. A total of 809 peptides originating from the major milk proteins were identified, and 82 of them were bioactive. Most of them showed ACE-inhibitory, antioxidant and DPP-IV-inhibitory activities. The highest amount of the in vivo anti-hypertensive tripeptides VPP and IPP was found in Gouda cheese (39.19 ± 1.26 and 17.72 ± 0.89 mg/100 g of cheese, respectively), whereas the highest amount of APFPE was detected in Edam cheese (509.13 ± 20.44 mg/100 g of cheese). These results suggest that the intake of Edam, Domiati and, especially, Gouda cheeses may result in a possible anti-hypertensive effect in hypertensive subjects.
Keywords: biological activity; dairy; mass spectrometry; peptide profiling; proteomics.