Turbo cornutus, a marine gastropod mollusk commonly called sea snail, is found along the southern coast of Korea and holds considerable importance as a marine food resource, particularly on Jeju Island, Korea. Data are scarce on the antioxidant activity of hot water extracts from T. cornutus visceral tissue. Therefore, this study was performed to evaluate the antioxidant activities of T. cornutus visceral tissue hot water extract (TVE) and the underlying mechanisms against hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress in Vero cells. The amino acid composition and antioxidant effects of TVE were evaluated. Furthermore, the impact of TVE on the expression of proteins within the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway is investigated. TVE showed a concentration-dependent enhancement in its scavenging activities against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals (IC50 = 1.07 ± 0.06 mg/mL) and hydrogen peroxide (IC50 = 0.33 ± 0.03 mg/mL). TVE reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and maintained cell viability under H2O2-induced oxidative stress by suppressing apoptosis in Vero cells. Additionally, TVE demonstrated regulatory effects on the MAPK and protein kinase B (Akt) signaling pathways activated by H2O2. In conclusion, the findings from our study propose that TVE holds potential as a bioactive component in the formulation of functional foods.

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Turbo cornutus, a species of the Turbinidae family, was characterized from the de novo assembly of Illumina paired-end sequencing data. The complete mitochondrial genome of T. cornutus was 17,297 bp in length and comprised of 13 protein-coding genes, 25 tRNAs, and two rRNAs. The base composition of T. cornutus exhibited a high A + T content of 71.17%. The phylogenetic analysis of T. cornutus with 14 species from GenBank revealed that the ancestor of Astralium haematragum and Bolma rugosa was diverged from T. cornutus.

Turbo cornutus, the horned turban sea snail, is found along the intertidal and basaltic shorelines and is an important fishery resource of Jeju Island. In this study, we performed a preliminary study on anti-inflammatory effect of 70% ethanol extract obtained from T. cornutus viscera (TVE) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells in vitro and zebrafish embryos in vivo. TVE reduced the production of LPS-stimulated nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) without any toxic effects. TVE also decreased the protein expression of LPS-induced inducible NO synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 and suppressed the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-1β. Furthermore, mechanistic studies indicated that TVE suppressed c-Jun N-terminal kinase phosphorylation and nuclear factor-kB activation. In zebrafish embryos, TVE did not show developmental toxicity based on the survival rate and cell death findings. In LPS-stimulated zebrafish embryos, TVE suppressed NO production and cell death. In conclusion, the result from this preliminary study showed TVE has a potential anti-inflammatory property that can be exploited as a functional food ingredient.

Turbo cornutus, the horned turban sea snail, is found along the intertidal and basaltic shorelines of Jeju Island, Korea. T. cornutus feeds on seaweeds (e.g., Undaria sp., and Ecklonia sp.) composed of diverse antioxidants. This study identified potential antioxidant properties from T. cornutus viscera tissues. Diverse extracts were evaluated for their hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) scavenging activities. T. cornutus viscera protamex-assisted extracts (TVP) were purified by gel filtration chromatography (GFC), and potential antioxidant properties were analyzed for their amino acid sequences and its peroxidase inhibition effects by in silico molecular docking and in vitro analysis. According to the results, T. cornutus viscera tissues are composed of many protein contents with each over 50%. Among the extracts, TVP possessed the highest H2O2 scavenging activity. In addition, TVP-GFC-3 significantly decreased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and increased cell viability in H2O2-treated HepG2 cells without cytotoxicity. TVP-GFC-3 comprises nine low molecular bioactive peptides (ELR, VGPQ, TDY, ALPHA, PAH, VDY, WSDK, VFSP, and FAPQY). Notably, the peptides dock to the active site of the myeloperoxidase (MPO), especially TDY and FAPQY showed the MPO inhibition effects with IC50 values of 646.0 ± 45.0 µM and 57.1 ± 17.7 µM, respectively. Altogether, our findings demonstrated that T. cornutus viscera have potential antioxidant properties that can be used as high value-added ingredients.