Molecular Biology Division, Institute for Scientific and Technological Research at San Luis Potosi, 78216 Mexico.
Peptides. 2010 Sep;31(9):1635-42. doi: 10.1016/j.peptides.2010.06.014. Epub 2010 Jun 25.
Because an unbalanced diet is an important risk factor for several illnesses, interest has increased in finding novel health-promoting foods. Amaranth produces seeds that not only have substantial nutritional properties but that also contain phytochemical compounds as rutin and nicotiflorin and peptides with antihypertensive and anticarcinogenic activities. We report that a cancer-preventive peptide in amaranth has activities similar to those of soybean lunasin. The amaranth lunasin-like peptide, however, requires less time than the soybean lunasin to internalize into the nucleus of NIH-3T3 cells, and inhibits histone acetylation (H(3) and H(4) in a 70 and 77%, respectively). The amaranth lunasin-like peptide inhibited the transformation of NIH-3T3 cells to cancerous foci. The open reading frame (ORF) of amaranth lunasin corresponds to a bifunctional inhibitor/lipid-transfer protein (LTP). LTPs are a family of proteins that in plants are implicated in different functions, albeit all linked to developmental processes and biotic and abiotic stress resistance. Our results open new intriguing questions about the function of lunasin in plants and support that amaranth is a food alternative containing natural peptides with health-promoting benefits.
由于饮食不均衡是多种疾病的一个重要风险因素，因此人们对寻找具有促进健康作用的新型食品产生了浓厚的兴趣。苋菜籽不仅具有丰富的营养价值，而且还含有芦丁和野黄芩苷等植物化学物质以及具有降血压和抗癌活性的肽。我们报告称，苋菜籽中的一种具有防癌作用的肽与大豆 lunasin 的活性相似。然而，与大豆 lunasin 相比，苋菜籽 lunasin 样肽进入 NIH-3T3 细胞核的时间更短，并且抑制组蛋白乙酰化（H（3）和 H（4）分别为 70%和 77%）。苋菜籽 lunasin 样肽抑制了 NIH-3T3 细胞向癌性病灶的转化。苋菜籽 lunasin 的开放阅读框（ORF）对应于一种双功能抑制剂/脂转移蛋白（LTP）。LTP 是一类蛋白质，在植物中与不同的功能有关，尽管都与发育过程以及生物和非生物胁迫抗性有关。我们的研究结果为 lunasin 在植物中的功能提出了新的有趣问题，并支持苋菜籽是一种含有具有促进健康作用的天然肽的替代食品。
