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TECHNOLOGY OFFER

TITLE

Peptide and polysaccharides extracts with biological activity


Process to obtain bioactive peptides and polysaccharides extracts from brewers spent yeast, by-product
of beer production

HIGHLIGHTS

Saccharomyces sp., is widely used in alcoholic beverages production. This yeast is an important sub-
product of beer industry representing 2 to 3% of total production. With an overall world beer production
rounding the 1575 million of hectoliters (hL) per year, it is estimated that 31.5 to 47 million hL of yeast
residues are accumulated each year, giving origin to a problematic environmental and economic issue.

CONTEXT

The majority of beer companies either deposits this sub-product as production losses or sells it at low
prices for the incorporation in cattle feed. However, it has been shown that brewers yeast possesses
certain cellular components (e.g. -glucans and biological active peptides) with biological activity and
therefore represents a potential pharmaceutical and nutritional value.
-glucans have been referred as mediators of biological responses due to their capacity to stimulate the
immune system. Additionally, these polysaccharides also display anti-oxidant, anti-coagulant, anti-
cytotoxic, anti-mutagenic and anti-tumoral properties.
On the other hand, biological active peptides are becoming increasingly popular among food science and
human nutrition. Different studies have shown the physiological role of these peptides highlighting their
anti-hypertensive, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant capacities among others.

BENEFITS

The obtainment of value added products from brewers yeast should generate benefits for the beer
industry by providing additional income and reducing the residue- treatment costs, and obviously a
relevant impact on environment.
Our innovative process, based on yeast enzymatic digestions proceeded by several technological facilities
(centrifugations and filtration steps), allows the isolation of value added extracts from large-scale beer
production yeast surplus and subsequently creates a very interesting solution for the application of these
sub-products.

PROOF OF CONCEPT

All the extracts obtained from brewers yeast processing were identified and structurally evaluated by
sugars and proteins/peptides detection. The type of glucan and peptide sequences was analyzed by mass
spectrometry. Testing these extracts, we observed that they exert various biological activities such as:
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition using a modified Sentandreu and Toldr method we
were able to calculate, for each extract, the amount of soluble protein needed to inhibit 50% of
the enzyme activity (IC50). The in vivo effect of these extracts was evaluated using SHR rat
(spontaneously hypertensive rat).
Effect on metabolic syndrome Rat were exposed to a high-fat diet (with or without peptide
extracts) and a metabolic approach was done (glucose and insulin tolerance; adipose tissue
morphology; weight control, etc).
Anti-microbial and prebiotic activity we performed a microplate screening using 4 reference food
pathogenic strains (E. coli; S. aureus; S. enteriditis and L. innocua), 2 probiotic reference strains
(L. acidophilus; B. animalis) and a reference prebiotic (FOS - fructoligosaccharide).
Anti-oxidant activity the anti-oxidant activity screening of each extract was executed by a
fluorometric method (ORAC).
TECHNOLOGY OFFER

Anti-carcinogen activity the peptide extracts cytotoxicity was measured in vitro using the tumor
cell lines K562, MCF-7, NCI-ADR, UACC-62, NCI460, PCO3, HT29, OVCAR and 786-0.
Anti-ulcerative activity clinical and anatomopathological evaluations were carried out using mice
containing ethanol-induced ulcers. The ulcerative lesions index (ILU) was calculated accordingly to
the methodology described before by Gamberini.

POTENCIAL COMMERCIAL USE /APPLICATIONS

Our process can be valuable for beverage and food producers, using brewers yeast (e.g. beer, wine and
bakery companies or any beverage industry), and also for yeast manufacturers as a new method to
monetize this product.

INVENTORS AND RESEARCH UNIT

Manuela Pintado1, Manuela Amorim1, Joana Odila Pereira1, Conceio Calhau2, Hlder Pinheiro2, Cludia
Marques2, Daniel Moura2
1
CBQF-Universidade Catlica Portuguesa; 2Cintesis-Faculdade Medicina Universidade do Porto

COOPERATION OPTIONS

Licensing agreement.
Product development (pre-clinical animal studies and clinical trials in humans).
Research Partnership.

PATENT STATUS

PT Provisional Patent N PT (advanced to PCT)

CONTACTS EMAIL TELEPHONE

XXXX xxxx@porto.ucp.pt +351 22 55 800 97

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