Biologically Active Peptides with Antiviral and Anti-COVID-19 Potential: Promising Insights for a Healthy Future

Adequate nutrition is essential for good health. The characterization of the molecules present in grains - used in the human diet for thousands of years - and their hydrolysates are currently a growing trend, due to their potential benefits on health, low cost and minimal adverse effects. Grains contain many bioactive compounds, such as carbohydrates, lipids and proteins; the latter can be cleaved by chemical hydrolysis or enzymatic processes and generate smaller fragments named peptides. The continuous attack of pathogenic microorganisms and viruses on humans makes necessary a continuous search for new antimicrobial and antiviral molecules; in this respect, several studies have found antimicrobial and antiviral properties in some peptides, with some of these deriving from underutilized grains. In respect to this, an exhaustive bibliographic search of these findings was performed by the use of the online search engines NCBI, Google Scholar and Google. Therefore, this chapter aims to describe the state-of-the-art scientific findings about the effects of peptides proceeding from underutilized grains against microorganisms, particularly focusing on the antiviral potential effects. 

Keywords: Antiviral, Antimicrobial, Biofunctionality, Cereals, COVID-19, Enzyme, Fermentation, Functional, Health, Hydrolysates, Legumes, Nutraceutical, Plant-based food, Peptides, SARS-CoV-2, Virus.