Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Chickpea Protein Hydrolysate-Vanadium Complexes Having Cell Inhibitory Effects on Lung Cancer A549 Cells Lines

Designing new types of drugs with preferred properties against cancer is a great issue for scientists dealing with synthesis and study of biological activity. Several organometallic compounds used in chemotherapy reveal side effects. Peptides from edible sources having no side effects may play a transport role in the delivery of anticancer metal ions into targeted tumor cells. For the last two decades, peptide-metal complexes have been considered as potential anticancer agents. In this work, oxovanadium complexes of peptides from Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seeds’ protein hydrolysate were investigated. The albumin fraction of Chickpea seeds protein was hydrolyzed with a combination of enzymes papain, trypsin, and alcalase. The hydrolysate was combined with vanadyl ions and obtained oxovanadium complexes were studied by FTIR, SEM–EDX, and TG-DSC analyses, and cell inhibition activity against A549 cells was detected by MTT Assay. In a result, activity of the complexes (IC50 = 14.39 µg/mL) increased 1.7-fold compared to the activity of inorganic salt of vanadium (IC50 = 24.75 µg/mL) against A549 cells. The complexes (CPH-V) were fractionated through Sephadex G-15, and the second active fraction, named CPH-V G15-II was studied by nano-Q-TOF LC/MS. Nine peptides with a molecular mass range of 437–1864 Da were identified. Seven of them were theoretically considered as cell-penetrating peptides. These results could serve first steps for deeper fundamental research on food-derived peptide-vanadium complexes.