Milk-Derived Antimicrobial Peptides: Overview, Applications, and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The growing consumer awareness towards healthy and safe food has reformed food processing strategies. Nowadays, food processors are aiming at natural, effective, safe, and low-cost substitutes for enhancing the shelf life of food products. Milk, besides being a rich source of nutrition for infants and adults, serves as a readily available source of precious functional peptides. Due to the existence of high genetic variability in milk proteins, there is a great possibility to get bioactive peptides with varied properties. Among other bioactive agents, milk-originated antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are gaining interest as attractive and safe additive conferring extended shelf life to minimally processed foods. These peptides display broad-spectrum antagonistic activity against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoans. Microbial proteolytic activity, extracellular peptidases, food-grade enzymes, and recombinant DNA technology application are among few strategies to tailor specific peptides from milk and enhance their production. These bioprotective agents have a promising future in addressing the global concern of food safety along with the possibility to be incorporated into the food matrix without compromising overall consumer acceptance. Additionally, in conformity to the current consumer demands, these AMPs also possess functional properties needed for value addition. This review attempts to present the basic properties, synthesis approaches, action mechanism, current status, and prospects of antimicrobial peptide application in food, dairy, and pharma industry along with their role in ensuring the safety and health of consumers.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Antimicrobial peptides; Bacteriocins; Dairy; Food preservation; Lactic acid bacteria; Milk; Probiotics.

Fig. 1

Schematic representation of different antimicrobial peptides synthesis, purification, and identification strategies

Fig. 2

Mechanism of action of the antimicrobial peptides by membrane lytic mechanism [A barrel stave model, B toroidal model, C carpet model] and non-membrane lytic mechanism, D aggregate model, E sinking raft model, F electroporation, and G leaky slit model]