Antioxidant potential and protective effect of modified sea cucumber peptides against H2O2-induced oxidative damage in vitro HepG2 cells and in vivo zebrafish model

Abdullah Abdulaziz Abbod Abdo; Yakun Hou; Fouad Abdulrahman Hassan; Sadeq Hasan Al-Sheraji; Hamzah Aleryani; Abdulmohsen Alanazi; Yaxin Sang

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131090

Antioxidant potential and protective effect of modified sea cucumber peptides against H₂O₂-induced oxidative damage in vitro HepG2 cells and in vivo zebrafish model

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Mar 25;266(Pt 2):131090. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131090. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Abdullah Abdulaziz Abbod Abdo¹, Yakun Hou², Fouad Abdulrahman Hassan³, Sadeq Hasan Al-Sheraji³, Hamzah Aleryani¹, Abdulmohsen Alanazi⁴, Yaxin Sang⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science and Technology, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, Hebei, China; Department of Food Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Ibb University, 70270 Ibb, Yemen.
² College of Food Science and Technology, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, Hebei, China.
³ Department of Medical Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ibb University, 70270 Ibb, Yemen.
⁴ Division of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2RX, United Kingdom.
⁵ College of Food Science and Technology, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, Hebei, China. Electronic address: yxsang1418@163.com.

PMID: 38537858
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131090

Abstract

In this study, modified sea Cucumber Peptides (SCP) were prepared by reacting with xylooligosaccharide (XOS) and alginate oligosaccharides (AOS) via glycation. Free radical inhibitory and inhibition of oxidative stress of modified SCP was evaluated using human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells and zebrafish embryos. LC-MS analysis revealed that SCPs mainly consist of 40 active peptides, with an average molecular weight of 1122.168 Da and an average length of 11 amino acid residues. For amino acid composition, L-Asparagine, L-Methionine, and L-Aspartic Acid were dominant amino acids in SCP. The result showed that the antioxidant ability of SCP against 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), superoxide anion radical (O^-2), and Hydroxyl Radical (OH) was significantly improved after modification. In HepG2 cells, the modified SCP showed stronger protection than native SCP native against H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress by enhancing cell viability and reducing radical oxygen species (ROS) generation. The inhibition effect of SCP was increased after modification with XOS and AOS by 13 % and 19 % respectively. Further studies displayed that the activity of antioxidative enzymes, including Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx), and catalase (CAT), was remarkably enhanced, whereas malondialdehyde (MDA) level was reduced compared with native SCP and H₂O₂-treated groups, thus, improving the intracellular antioxidant defenses. The gene expression analysis showed that the mechanism underlying the modified SCP protective effect may be linked with the capability to regulate Nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) gene expression. The protective effect of modified SCP against H₂O₂ in vitro was confirmed in vivo by reduced toxicity in zebrafish embryos via improvement of mortality rate, hatching rate, heart beating rate, and deformities of the zebrafish model. However, SCPAOS conjugate displayed greater antioxidant potentials compared to the SCPXOS, the different effects between SCPAOS and SCPXOS could be due to their different antioxidant activity. Thus, modified SCP could be potentially used as a novel nutraceutical in the preparation of anti-aging food and medicine.

Keywords: Antioxidant potential; HepG2 cells; Modification; Oxidative damage; Sea cucumber peptides.