foods Article Evaluation of Anti-Inflammatory and Atheroprotective Properties of Wheat Gluten Protein Hydrolysates in Primary Human Monocytes Sergio Montserrat-de la Paz 1 , Noelia M. Rodriguez-Martin 2, Alvaro Villanueva 2, Justo Pedroche 2, Ivan Cruz-Chamorro 1,3 , Francisco Millan 2 and Maria C. Millan-Linares 2,4,* 1 Department of Medical Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Universidad de Sevilla, Av. Dr. Fedriani 3, 41071 Seville, Spain;
[email protected] (S.M.-d.l.P.);
[email protected] (I.C.-C.) 2 Department of Food & Health, Instituto de la Grasa, CSIC. Ctra. de Utrera Km. 1, 41013 Seville, Spain;
[email protected] (N.M.R.-M.);
[email protected] (A.V.);
[email protected] (J.P.);
[email protected] (F.W.) 3 Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla, IBiS (Universidad de Sevilla, HUVR, Junta de Andalucía, CSIC), Av. Manuel Siurot s/n, 41013 Seville, Spain 4 Cell Biology Unit, Instituto de la Grasa, CSIC. Ctra. de Utrera Km. 1, 41013 Seville, Spain * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +34-954-61-15-50 Received: 21 May 2020; Accepted: 29 June 2020; Published: 30 June 2020 Abstract: Bioactive protein hydrolysates have been identified in several sources as possible agents in the prevention and treatment of many diseases. A wheat gluten (WG) concentrate was hydrolyzed by Alcalase under specific conditions. The resulting hydrolysates were evaluated by in vitro cell-free experiments leading to the identification of one bioactive WG protein hydrolysate (WGPH), which was used at 50 and 100 µg/mL on primary human monocytes. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitrite levels and RT-qPCR and ELISA techniques were used to analyze the functional activity of WGPH.