Hemolytic lectins are proteins that agglutinate and/or lyse red blood cells. Such proteins are involved in cellular toxicity, inhibition of cell growth, and antifungal properties. Ghost Peppers and Carolina Reapers, also known as bhut jolokia and Capsicum chinense, belong to a family of peppers in which they are known for their spiciness and were used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various conditions. To our knowledge, we are the first to report lectin activity from carolina reaper and ghost peppers. We believe that these lectins are related to a lectin previously reported, the red cluster pepper (<i>Capsicum frutescens</i>), and was found to have antifungal and mitogenic activities. The proteins were extracted from the pepper seeds with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) pH 7.4. Hemagglutination assay was used to detect activity using 2% (v/v) sheep erythrocytes in PBS. The lectin from Carolina Reaper was isolated using a Catch and Release (CaRE) method using asialofetuin. The sample was filtered using centrifugal filtration tubes and SDS-PAGE gel was used to determine molecular weight and sample purity. Plant lectins have specific binding partners; the binding specificity was determined and biological applications can be applied in the future. Thermal stability was analyzed by exposing crude to increasing temperatures and checking activity. The hemolytic lectins were determined to be thermophilic proteins because they are capable of maintaining activity at high temperatures (120 °C), showed binding affinty with asialofetuin and thyroglobulin, and are approximately 10 kDa in size in their monomeric state.

Isolation of novel thermophilic hemolytic lectins from ghost pepper and carolina reaper seeds and purification of carolina reaper using the CaRE method

ACS Spring 2022

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