Antioxidant activity and anti-proliferative effect of a bioactive peptide from chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Our previous study identified a chickpea peptide (CPe-III) derived from chickpea albumin hydrolysate which exhibited a high antioxidant activity. CPe-III-S peptide corresponding to amino acid sequences of CPe-III (RQSHFANAQP) was synthesized chemically to determine the bioactive activity. The reducing power, hydroxyl radical, DPPH radical, ABTS radical scavenging assay and DCFH-DA assay showed significant dose-dependent activities. The cell viability assay indicated a high inhibition activity on MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells with EC50 values of 2.38 and 1.50 μmol/mL. The p53 protein increased with increasing concentration of CPe-III-S tested by ELISA Kit. The specific binding of peptide and p53 protein was determined by means of molecular docking. These results indicated that CPe-III-S effectively inhibited the proliferation of breast cancer cells by increasing the p53. This is the first report of the synthetic peptide which based on CPe-III derived from the enzymatic hydrolysate of chickpea to exhibit the antioxidant activity and antiproliferative effect.