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Production, Health Benefits and Potential Applications of Bioactive Peptides Derived...
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Production, Health Benefits and Potential Applications of Bioactive Peptides Derived from Food and By-Products

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Physics and (Bio)Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2025 | Viewed by 227

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiaowei Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
Interests: protein/peptide function; nutritious supplementary; nutrient delivery; animal product processing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ting Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Food Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China
Interests: bioactive peptides; functional properties; functional foods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore the multifaceted roles of bioactive peptides derived from food and by-products. This Issue will highlight advancements in sustainable production methods, mechanistic insights into their health-promoting properties, and innovative applications in the food and nutraceutical industries.

Bioactive peptides, generated through enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, or processing of food proteins, have emerged as key compounds with significant health benefits, including antihypertensive, antioxidant, antimicrobial, hypoglycemic, immunomodulatory and promote bone growth activities. With growing interest in sustainable food systems, the valorization of agricultural, marine, and industrial by-products as peptide sources offers a dual advantage: reducing waste and creating high-value functional ingredients. This Special Issue seeks to address gaps in the scalable production, bioavailability, clinical validation, and commercialization of bioactive peptides while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

Key Topics of Interest

(1) Production and Optimization

  • Novel extraction, hydrolysis, and purification techniques.
  • Sustainable strategies for recovering peptides from underutilized by-products.
  • Advances in fermentation, synthetic biology, or AI-driven peptide design.

(2) Health Benefits and Mechanisms

  • In vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies on bioactive peptides’ bioactivity (e.g., cardioprotective, antidiabetic, and neuroprotective effects).
  • Structure–function relationships and interactions with human microbiota.
  • Synergistic effects of peptide combinations or delivery systems (e.g., encapsulation).

(3) Potential Applications

  • Functional foods, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements fortified with bioactive peptides.
  • Pharmaceutical applications (e.g., antimicrobial peptides and drug delivery).

Dr. Xiaowei Zhang
Dr. Ting Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bioactive peptides
  • functional foods
  • health benefits
  • food by-products
  • sustainable production
  • bioavailability
  • targeted delivery
  • potential applications

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2640 KB  
Article
Interactions Between HEP Peptide and EGFR Involved in the Osteoblast Differentiation
by Jing Gan, Yanling Huang, Mengqi Jian, Yuhang Chen, Yuxuan Jiang, Yang Qiao and Yang Li
Foods 2025, 14(17), 3032; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14173032 - 29 Aug 2025
Abstract
The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), as an important target protein for inhibiting and intervening in osteoporosis, is associated with cell migration, proliferation, and apoptosis. Peptides derived from food have been shown to have a strong affinity for EGFR, thereby regulating downstream cellular-signaling [...] Read more.
The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), as an important target protein for inhibiting and intervening in osteoporosis, is associated with cell migration, proliferation, and apoptosis. Peptides derived from food have been shown to have a strong affinity for EGFR, thereby regulating downstream cellular-signaling pathways and participating in stimulating bone formation. However, it is still a “black box” as to how active peptides affect the conformational changes in the EGFR-binding domain when interacting with its ligand EGF. To shed light on the roles, peptides in EGFR binding, which is involved in the osteoblast differentiation, a high EGFR affinity soybean peptide (HEP) was isolated and purified from soy yogurt. Firstly, the osteogenic activity of HEP was identified through cellular alkaline-phosphatase (ALP) and calcium influx. HEP promoted ALP activity from 0.01897 ± 0.00165 to 0.04051 ± 0.00402 U/mg after 100 μM of peptide treatment, and free intracellular calcium ions and calcium deposition both increased in a dose-dependent manner at 1–100 μg/mL. Secondly, the interaction between HEP and EGFR was detected by bioinformatics, spectroscopy analysis, and Western blot. The Molecular docking results showed that HEP (VVELLKAFEEKF) exhibited high affinity among all the peptides, with -CDOCKER energy values of 184.077 kcal/mol on one EGFR. Moreover, a different loop conformation has been detected in HEP, comparing it to that of EGF, which influences HEP interactions with EGFR. GlU3, LEU4, and LEU5 (HEP) match GLU40, LEU26, and GLU40 (EGF). Moreover, the CD data showed that HEP could interact with extracellular domain protein of EGFR, but the secondary structure did not change after HEP was mixed with Mutant extracellular domain protein. Furthermore, treatment with HEP increased the expression of EGFR and the activation of the PI3K-RUNX2-signaling pathway. These results suggested that HEP may have the function of promoting bone remodeling, which could promote the binding between EGF and EGFR and may be used as a potential active factor for functional food development to prevent osteoporosis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Production, Health Benefits and Potential Applications of Bioactive Peptides Derived from Food and By-Products)
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