Whey proteins as multifunctional food materials: Recent advancements in hydrolysis, separation, and peptidomimetic approaches
Authors: Saadi Sami , Makhlouf Chaalal , Nacer Nor Elhouda , Halima Boughellout , Faiza Adoui , Kahina Hafid , Wahiba Falek , Afaf Kheroufi , Rabah Kezih , Saoudi Zineddine 
Published: January 2024

Whey protein derived bioactives, including α‐lactalbumin, ß‐lactoglobulin, bovine serum albumin, lactoferrin, transferrin, and proteose–peptones, have exhibited wide ranges of functional, biological and therapeutic properties varying from anticancer, antihypertensive, and antimicrobial effects. In addition, their functional properties involve gelling, emulsifying, and foaming abilities. For these reasons, this review article is framed to understand the relationship existed in between those compound levels and structures with their main functional, biological, and therapeutic properties exhibited either in vitro or in vivo. The impacts of hydrolysis mechanism and separation techniques in enhancing those properties are likewise discussed. Furthermore, special emphasize is given to multifunctional effects of whey derived bioactives and their future trends in ameliorating further food, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical products. The underlying mechanism effects of those properties are still remained unclear in terms of activity levels, efficacy, and targeted effectiveness. For these reasons, some important models linking to functional properties, thermal properties and cell circumstances are established. Moreover, the coexistence of radical trapping groups, chelating groups, sulfhydryl groups, inhibitory groups, and peptide bonds seemed to be the key elements in triggering those functions and properties.

Practical Application: Whey proteins are the byproducts of cheese processing and usually the exploitation of these food waste products has increasingly getting acceptance in many countries, especially European countries. Whey proteins share comparable nutritive values to milk products, particularly on their richness on important proteins that can serve immune protection, structural, and energetic roles. The nutritive profile of whey proteins shows diverse type of bioactive molecules like α‐lactalbumin, ß‐lactoglobulin, lactoferrin, transferrin, immunoglobulin, and proteose peptones with wide biological importance to the living system, such as in maintaining immunological, neuronal, and signaling roles. The diversification of proteins of whey products prompted scientists to exploit the real mechanisms behind of their biological and therapeutic effects, especially in declining the risk of cancer, tumor, and further complications like diabetes type 2 and hypertension risk effects. For these reasons, profiling these types of proteins using different proteomic and peptidomic approaches helps in determining their biological and therapeutic targets along with their release into gastrointestinal tract conditions and their bioavailabilities into portal circulation, tissue, and organs. The wide applicability of those protein fractions and their derivative bioactive products showed significant impacts in the field of emulsion and double emulsion stabilization by playing roles as emulsifying, surfactant, stabilizing, and foaming agents. Their amphoteric properties helped them to act as excellent encapsulating agents, particularly as vehicle for delivering important vitamins and bioactive compounds. The presence of ferric elements increased their transportation to several metal‐ions in the same time increased their scavenging effects to metal‐transition and peroxidation of lipids. Their richness with almost essential and nonessential amino acids makes them as selective microbial starters, in addition their richness in sulfhydryl amino acids allowed them to act a cross‐linker in conjugating further biomolecules. For instance, conjugating gold‐nanoparticles and fluorescent materials in targeting diseases like cancer and tumors in vivo is considered the cutting‐edges strategies for these versatile molecules due to their active diffusion across‐cell membrane and the presence of specific transporters to these therapeutic molecules.