Hydrogen Water Directly Changes Stomach Enzyme Activity at Molecular Level
- Authors
- Jie Cheng, Chao Tang, Xueling Li, Jun Hu, Junhong Lü
- Journal
- Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces
- Year
- 2020
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2020.110856
- Study Type
- Molecular Assay
- Outcome
- Neutral
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Digestive Disorders
- Body System
- Digestive
TL;DR
Hydrogen-rich water may improve protein function by changing the protein's structure and mechanical properties.
Key Finding
Hydrogen-rich water directly interacted with pepsin protein in laboratory conditions, increasing its enzymatic activity and changing its structural and mechanical properties.
Summary
Researchers studied how hydrogen-rich water affects pepsin, a digestive enzyme, using advanced laboratory techniques to examine changes in the protein's activity and physical structure. They found that hydrogen-rich water increased pepsin's enzymatic activity (its ability to break down proteins) and altered its mechanical properties and structural characteristics, suggesting that hydrogen molecules interact directly with proteins by affecting their water-repelling (hydrophobic) regions.
Practical Takeaway
This is an early laboratory study showing that hydrogen molecules may interact with digestive proteins at the molecular level. However, this work was conducted in a test tube with isolated pepsin, not in living organisms or humans, so it's unclear whether these effects would occur in the body or translate to health benefits. More research in animal models and humans would be needed to determine if this mechanism has practical significance for hydrogen water consumption.
Abstract
Hydrogen gas therapy has been recognized as the promising application merit. However, the underlying mechanism on the biological effects remains far from being understood. In this work, pepsin used as a research model, the effects of hydrogen-rich water on the protein activities and structural properties were investigated by enzymatic assay, atomic force microscopy-based peakforce quantitative nanomechanical mapping (PF-QNM) and terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). We found that hydrogen-rich water can increase the protein activity and its apparent height while alter the mechanical properties (Young's modulus) and the terahertz dynamics. These results suggest a possible mode of hydrogen molecules acting with pepsin through the local changes of hydrophobic interfaces in the protein molecules, thus provide the first evidence for the direct interaction between hydrogen with proteins and a biophysical insight into the mechanism of hydrogen as well as other gases on the biological effects.