Lactoferrin as an Added-value Whey Component and a Healthy Additive in Nutraceutical Drinks

Lactoferrin (Lf) is a whey protein with potential food applications to sustain human health. Lf is already added to infant formula milk powder so that, like breastmilk, it contains Lf to help build resistance to disease. One yogurt is added with Lf and produced by the Morinaga factory in The Nederlands. Lf binds iron, and can deliver it to increase iron availability. This ability seems to affect also microbes and fungi, although ironbound lactoferricin peptide seems to be as effective as the full protein. In this work it is shown the effect of Lf on MCF-7 cultured cells, i.e. the induction of apoptosis in the presence of sustained cell cycling driven by angiotensin-II growth factor. We thus show that Lf may have antiproliferative activity on selected cell types. Further work is needed to individuate the proteins interacting with Lf, and the downstream signalling that end in the shutting off of cell cycle effectors. We found that Lf-based emulsions storage with good stability up to 12 months. A milk or soy-milk beverage may be a convenient vehicle for delivery of Lf-based nutraceuticals.