Camel milk has been gaining immmense importance due to high nutritious value and medicinal properties.
Peptides from
milk proteins is gaining popularity in various
therapeutics including human
cancer. The study was aimed to investigate the anti-cancerous and anti-inflammatory properties of camel
whey protein hydrolysates (CWPHs). CWPHs were generated at three temperatures (30 ℃, 37 ℃, and 45 ℃), two hydrolysis timepoints (120 and 360 min) and with three different
enzyme concentrations (0.5, 1 and 2 %). CWPHs demonstrated an increase in anti-inflammatory effect between 732.50 (P-6.1) and 3779.16 (P-2.1) µg Dicolfenac
Sodium Equivalent (DSE)/mg
protein. CWPHs (P-4.3 & 5.2) inhibited growth of human colon
carcinoma cells (HCT116) with an IC50 value of 231 and 221 μg/ml, respectively. P-4.3 induced G2/M cell cycle arrest and modulated the expression of Cdk1, p-Cdk1,
Cyclin B1, p-
histone H3, p21 and p53. Docking of two
peptides (AHLEQVLLR and ALPNIDPPTVER) from CWPHs (P-4.3) identified
Polo like kinase 1 as a potential target, which strongly supports our in vitro data and provides an encouraging insight into developing a novel
peptide-based anticancer formulation. These results suggest that the active component, CWPHs (P-4.3), can be further studied and modeled to form a small molecule anti-cancerous
therapy.