Cholesterol-Reducing Foods: Proteins and Peptides

Nowadays, there is much interest for bioactive peptides from food proteins that may positively influence major body functions. Once they are released by digestion from parental proteins and absorbed, they behave as physiological modulators with hormone-like activities in several tissues and cell types. Among other bioactivities, recent investigations underline that some peptides may have hypocholesterolemic effects. The main sources of cholesterol-lowering peptides are up-to-now seeds, such as lupin, hemp seed, soybean, and amaranth. The critical aspects in bioactive peptide discovery are the following: 1) the release of bioactive sequences; 2) initial screening for targeted bioactivities, mainly in suitable cells models; 3) purification and separation; 4) further determination of the biological activity of purified peptides; 5) peptide identification by mass spectrometry; 6) final in vitro and in vivo validation of the biological activity (often performed on synthetic peptides)