Corn Silk Peptide-Alpha (CSP-α), a Potential Sirtuin Activator, Enhances Survival Rate of Aging Yeast

Soma, Watanabe (2026) Corn Silk Peptide-Alpha (CSP-α), a Potential Sirtuin Activator, Enhances Survival Rate of Aging Yeast. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Corn silk (CS) is well known for its anti-aging, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Our recent research identified a promising peptide, CSP-α, from trypsin-hydrolysed CS proteins. Therefore, this work aims to evaluate the survival enhancing effect of CSP-α using a yeast aging model system as well as its Sirtuin activating potential in silico. Results indicated that CSP-α was able to significantly improve the survival rate of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (BY4741) as compared to the untreated control. On Day 10, the survival rate of peptide-treated cells was 0.12-fold higher than that of untreated control. Interestingly, CSP-α also demonstrated a stronger survival-improvement effect than the positive control, cryptotanshinone (CPT). A similar observation was noted on Day 17, in which CSP-α and CPT treated cells exhibited 0.15- and 0.06-folds increased survivability than the untreated control, respectively. We postulated that the survival enhancing property of this peptide could be due to its activation of Sir2 (Silent Information Regulator 2) in the yeast cells. Sir2 is a conserved protein homologous to the human SIRT1, a longevity promoting enzyme. Since SIRT1 protein structure had been elucidated, it was used in the molecular docking experimentation to investigate CSP-α binding capacity to the SIRT1 allosteric site. CSP-α was revealed to be a strong activator of this protein, better than other previously reported SIRT1 activators; mulberrin, quinine, quinidine, gartanin, and resveratrol. This peptide interacted with vital amino acids within the allosteric site of SIRT1; Asn226 and Gln222. In conclusion, further investigation should be conducted on CSP-α to validate its longevity-promoting activity especially on other in vivo model systems.