Enzyme and Bioactive Peptides—A Strategy for Discovery and Identification of Antihypertensive Peptides

The development of bioactive peptides as novel therapeutic agents has been intensified due to the high demands of natural medicine. Two major research questions have been raised: (1) Which peptide sequence has the potential to exhibit the targeted biological activity and (2) How is the known peptide released from the parent protein? To overcome these challenges, we proposed that the release of these peptides could be enhanced by the disruption of peptide bonds within the protein using an enzyme. This approach is not just able to control the reaction rate, it also has the capability to select the peptide sequences of interest. In this chapter, we will discuss the potential of enzymes in extracting and identifying the bioactive peptides. An attempt to understand the process development for enzyme-assisted extraction has been carried out herein, and a strategy of antihypertensive bioactive peptide discovery using this enzymatic approach is outlined.