Proteomic analysis of antihypertensive proteins in edible mushrooms

Mushrooms are high in protein content, which makes them potentially a good source of antihypertensive peptides. Among the mushrooms tested, protein extracts from Pleurotus cystidiosus (E1Pc and E5Pc) and Agaricus bisporus (E1Ab and E3Ab) had high levels of antihypertensive activity. The protein extracts were fractionated by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RPHPLC) into six fractions. Fraction 3 from E5Pc (E5PcF3) and fraction 6 from E3Ab (E3AbF6) had the highest antihypertensive activities. SDS-PAGE analysis showed E5PcF3 consisted mainly of low molecular weight proteins, whereas E3AbF6 contained a variety of high to low molecular weight proteins. There were 22 protein clusters detected by SELDI-TOF-MS analysis with five common peaks found in E5PcF3 and E3AbF6, which had m/z values in the range of 3940-11413. This study suggests that the antihypertensive activity in the two mushroom species could be due to proteins with molecular masses ranging from 3 to 10 kDa.