Skeletal muscle is the metabolic powerhouse of the body, however, dysregulation of the mechanisms involved in skeletal muscle mass maintenance can have devastating effects leading to many metabolic and physiological diseases. The lack of effective solutions makes finding a validated nutritional intervention an urgent unmet medical need. In vitro testing in murine skeletal muscle cells and human macrophages was carried out to determine the effect of a hydrolysate derived from vicia faba (PeptiStrong: NPN_1) against phosphorylated S6, atrophy gene expression, and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) secretion, respectively. Finally, the efficacy of NPN_1 on attenuating muscle waste in vivo was assessed in an atrophy murine model. Treatment of NPN_1 significantly increased the phosphorylation of S6, downregulated muscle atrophy related genes, and reduced lipopolysaccharide-induced TNF-α release in vitro. In a disuse atrophy murine model, following 18 days of NPN_1 treatment, mice exhibited a significant attenuation of muscle loss in the soleus muscle and increased the integrated expression of Type I and Type IIa fibres. At the RNA level, a significant upregulation of protein synthesis-related genes was observed in the soleus muscle following NPN_1 treatment. In vitro and preclinical results suggest that NPN_1 is an effective bioactive ingredient with great potential to prolong muscle health.

The prevalence of prediabetes is rapidly increasing, and this can lead to an increased risk for individuals to develop type 2 diabetes and associated diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to develop nutritional strategies to maintain healthy glucose levels and prevent glucose metabolism dysregulation in the general population. Functional ingredients offer great potential for the prevention of various health conditions, including blood glucose regulation, in a cost-effective manner. Using an artificial intelligence (AI) approach, a functional ingredient, NRT_N0G5IJ, was predicted and produced from Pisum sativum (pea) protein by hydrolysis and then validated. Treatment of human skeletal muscle cells with NRT_N0G5IJ significantly increased glucose uptake, indicating efficacy of this ingredient in vitro. When db/db diabetic mice were treated with NRT_N0G5IJ, we observed a significant reduction in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and a concomitant benefit on fasting glucose. A pilot double-blinded, placebo controlled human trial in a population of healthy individuals with elevated HbA1c (5.6% to 6.4%) showed that HbA1c percentage was significantly reduced when NRT_N0G5IJ was supplemented in the diet over a 12-week period. Here, we provide evidence of an AI approach to discovery and demonstrate that a functional ingredient identified using this technology could be used as a supplement to maintain healthy glucose regulation.

Increasingly health-conscious consumers are changing their buying habits. With convenience and nutritional value of paramount importance, products such as bagged lettuce and salads have become increasingly popular in the last 10 years as "healthy fast food" (Koukkidis & Freestone, 2018;Rekhy & McConchie, 2014).The pH of lettuce (5.5-6.0) paired with its high water activity (a w ) value provides optimal conditions for microbial growth (Tirpanalan et al., 2011). This is made worse in cut/shredded lettuce as the surface area is vastly increased making it a highly perishable food which is often implicated in outbreaks of foodborne illness (Qadri

Bioactive peptides are known to have many health benefits beyond nutrition; yet the peptide profile of high protein ingredients has been largely overlooked when considering the effects of different processing techniques. Therefore, to investigate whether drying conditions could affect the peptide profile and bioactivity within a functional ingredient, we examined the effects of spray (SD) and freeze (FD) drying on rice natural peptide network (NPN), a characterised functional ingredient sourced from the Oryza sativa proteome, which has previously been shown to effectively modulate circulating cytokines and improve physical performance in humans. In the manufacturing process, rice NPN was either FD or SD. Employing a peptidomic approach, we investigated the physicochemical characteristics of peptides common and unique to FD and SD preparations. We observed similar peptide profiles regarding peptide count, amino acid distribution, weight, charge, and hydrophobicity in each sample. Additionally, to evaluate the effects of drying processes on functionality, using machine learning, we examined constituent peptides with predicted anti-inflammatory activity within both groups and identified that the majority of anti-inflammatory peptides were common to both. Of note, key bioactive peptides validated within rice NPN were recorded in both SD and FD samples. The present study provides an important insight into the overall stability of the peptide profile and the use of machine learning in assessing predicted retention of bioactive peptides contributing to functionality during different types of processing.