Sequence-Resolved Discovery of Immunomodulatory Peptides from Cricket Protein Hydrolysate as a Functional Alternative Protein Ingredient

preprint · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026

preprint · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026. Xinyue Qi et al.

Peer-reviewed version: Sequence-resolved discovery and cellular validation of immunomodulatory peptides from cricket protein hydrolysate (2026-09-18, Future Foods)

Authors

Cricket hydrolysate immunomodulatory peptides: Sequence-resolved workflow for finding immunomodulatory peptides in cricket protein hydrolysate, an alternative-protein food ingredient. The hydrolysate is analysed without a proteolytic digest (PEAKS run with a non-specific enzyme setting) on a Q Exactive, and sequenced de novo with PEAKS to 25,582 assignments at ALC above 50%. Those are filtered to unmodified peptides scoring above 80 that together account for 95% of total abundance (n = 3231), then prioritised by structure-based screening against the STAT3 SH2 domain and molecular dynamics. Selected synthetic peptides reduced LPS-induced IL-6 and TNF-alpha secretion in BV2 microglia, and the hydrolysate itself reduced STAT3 phosphorylation. The paper labels the MS step ‘de novo peptidomics’; its own methods and results call the same operation de novo sequencing, so the phrase denotes de novo sequencing of an undigested peptidome rather than a broader pipeline.
PEAKS: Commercial DP-based de novo