Abstract:In order to obtain earthworm protein peptides with efficient pancreatic lipase inhibition activity, this study combined the advantages of endogenous enzymes and commercial enzymes, employing a two-step enzymatic hydrolysis method to hydrolyze earthworm protein. The pancreatic lipase inhibition rate was used as the evaluation index, and single factor experiments and orthogonal experiments were used to optimize the second step enzymatic hydrolysis process. In addition, the hydrolysates were purified by ultrafiltration and Sephadex G-15 gel chromatography, and peptides with high pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity were screened by LC-MS/MS, molecular docking and other technologies combined with PeptideRanker database. The results showed that the optimal preparation process for the second step enzymatic hydrolysis was a solid-liquid ratio of 1:2 (50%, w/w), alkaline protease dosage of 6.0 x 104U, temperature of 50℃, pH of 9.5, and enzymatic hydrolysis time of 3 hours. Under the conditions, the pancreatic lipase inhibition activity could reached 53.92±0.43%, the hydrolysis degree was 41.98±0.42% and the soluble peptide yield reached 89.17±0.54%. Also, 10 peptide segments with high affinity, good biological activity and non-toxicity were screened, namely GDAPPFFP, YPFDPGP, WGPDLP, FDFP, DDFFR, FLDF, SDDGFF, FDDF, SDDFF and WDDFF. Small molecule peptides and amino acids may be the main material basis for the inhibitory effect of earthworm protein on pancreatic lipase, this study provides a new perspective for understanding the lipid-lowering activity of earthworm proteinconditions, and provides conditions for further research on the structure-activity relationship of earthworm protein functional peptides and the mechanism of pancreatic lipase inhibition.