New Advances in the Research of Antioxidant Food Peptides

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue New Advances in the Research of Antioxidant Food Peptides that was published in Foods.Edited by: Lourdes Amigo and Blanca Hernández-LedesmaDuring cell metabolism, oxygen is partially reduced to reactive oxygen species (ROS) that play a physiological role in cellular processes, including proliferation, cell cycle and death, and signal transduction. However, their high reactivity makes ROS responsible for oxidation of lipid, proteins, and DNA, causing damaging effects on vital tissues. These destructive effects can be counteracted by endogenous antioxidant defenses. Nevertheless, an imbalance between the production of ROS and the ability of defenses to detoxify the organism provokes a status of oxidative stress. This status and its subsequent damages to vital cellular components have been associated with numerous severe chronic disorders, such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, intestinal inflammatory diseases, and cancer. In addition, oxidation reactions are responsible for food deterioration during processing and storage. In spite of their remarkable effectiveness, the endogenous antioxidant systems are not sufficient and humans are dependent on dietary antioxidants to maintain ROS concentrations at low levels. A number of natural antioxidants have been revealed as potential preventative/therapeutic agents against oxidative stress. Among them, peptides from animal and vegetal food sources have attracted attention because of the large evidence on their in vitro antioxidant properties. In addition to their potential as safer alternatives to synthetic antioxidants used to prevent oxidative reactions in foods, antioxidant peptides can also act by reducing the risk of numerous oxidative stress-associated diseases. Furthermore, peptides can act synergistically with nonpeptide antioxidants, enhancing their protective effect.This work was funded by project AGL2015-66886-R from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICIU) and PID2019-104218RB-I00 (CSIC).Peer reviewe