Research News
Feb 17, 2023
New antioxidants found in beef, chicken, and pork!
Establishment of a highly sensitive detection method for imidazole dipeptide oxidation derivatives
Antioxidants discovered in meat! Osaka Metropolitan University researchers developed a new protocol for selective and highly sensitive detection, discovering five types of 2-oxo-imidazole-containing dipeptides(2-oxo-IDPs) using mass spectrometry. The 2-oxo-IDPs, present in living organisms, exhibit very high antioxidant activity, and were found to be abundant in meat including, beef, pork, and chicken.
Osaka, Japan – Imidazole dipeptides (IDPs), which are abundant in meat and fish, are substances produced in the bodies of various animals, including humans, and have been reported to be effective in relieving fatigue and preventing dementia. However, the physiological mechanism by which IDPs exhibit these activities had not been determined previously.
A research team, led by Professor Hideshi Ihara from the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Science, was the first to discover 2-oxo-imidazole-containing dipeptides (2-oxo-IDPs)—which have one more oxygen atom than normal IDPs—and found that they are the most common variety of IDPs derivatives in the body. The researchers also found that they have remarkably high antioxidant activity.
In their study, the researchers established a method for selective and highly sensitive detection of five types of 2-oxo-IDPs using mass spectrometry, which enables quantitative detection of trace 2-oxo-IDPs in living organisms. Using this method, they revealed for the first time that beef, pork, chicken, and other meats contain antioxidants, not only IDPs but a variety of different 2-oxo-IDPs. Their findings were published in Antioxidants.
“We hope that this research method, which enables advanced analysis of 2-oxo-IDPs, will be applied not only to basic biology but also to medicine, agriculture, and pharmacy, where it will help improve peoples’ health and prevent diseases,” concluded Professor Ihara.
Funding
This work was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S, B and C) 17H06170, 21H02082, 19K06537 and 22K06148, Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research 20K21256 and 22K19159, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Oxygen Biology: a new criterion for integrated understanding of life” 26111011 from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sciences, Sports, Technology.
Paper Information
Journal: Antioxidants
Title: Quantitative Determination of 2-Oxo-Imidazole-Containing Dipeptides by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry
DOI: 10.3390/antiox11122401
Author: Somei Komae, Shingo Kasamatsu, Koji Uchida and Hideshi Ihara
Publish: December 2, 2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox11122401
Contact
Graduate School of Science
Hideshi IHARA
E-mail: iharah[at]omu.ac.jp
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