Red seaweed has long threaded through meals across Asia, from nori wrapped around rice to gim served at the table, yet its quiet effects on the body have remained largely unexplored. Researchers at Hokkaido University now point to a small piece of that story: when dulse, a frilly red alga from the cold coastal waters of Japan's north, is broken down in the lab the way digestion would break it down, it yields a tiny four-amino-acid fragment called EVYR. Its possible role in steadying blood sugar is a hopeful thread in a much longer human search for food that supports the body's own regulation,
Dulse Seaweed Peptide EVYR Shows Early Promise for Blood Glucose Control
A four-amino-acid peptide released from seaweed during digestion
Mark
So what did the team actually find?
Mimi
When they digested dulse in the lab, mimicking human digestion, a four-amino-acid peptide called EVYR was released. It inhibits an enzyme called DPP-IV.
Mark
Why does that enzyme matter?
Mimi
DPP-IV breaks down hormones that stimulate insulin release. Block it, and those hormones keep working longer, so insulin release is stimulated for longer.
Luke
Let me slow that down. This is a lab digestion, not a human trial. Nobody has shown that eating dulse changes anyone's blood glucose.
Mimi
Right, and the researchers say as much. Further studies need to establish whether enough EVYR is released to matter in the body.
Mark
They did measure the amount, though?
Mimi
They quantified it using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, so the peptide is confirmed as released. What's unknown is whether the amount is meaningful.
Luke
And the claim about other red algae is softer. That comes from sequence comparisons and computer simulations, not from digesting those species.
Mark
So why does it still matter?
Mimi
Dulse is a food people already eat, and it joins fish, milk and soybeans as a source of peptides with potential glucose-regulating properties. Kumagai sees it as a route to functional foods.
Luke
Potential is the operative word. It's a promising lead, not a result.
Der Puls
- A common, beloved food is revealed to hold a previously unrecognized molecular secret, and the surprise carries a quiet urgency for anyone managing blood sugar.
- Inside the laboratory, dulse seaweed is run through an artificial digestion process, and a small peptide called EVYR emerges from the breakdown.
- The peptide blocks the DPP-IV enzyme, which means insulin-prompting hormones linger longer, pushing the body's glucose-control machinery in a helpful direction.
- Scientists are measuring, comparing and simulating to see whether other red algae could yield the same molecule, while the researchers call for human studies.
- The finding lands as a promising lead for functional foods, but it remains untested in people, so its real-world impact on blood glucose is still unsettled.
Red seaweed has long threaded through meals across Asia, from nori wrapped around rice to gim served at the table, yet its quiet effects on the body have remained largely unexplored. Researchers at Hokkaido University now point to a small piece of that story: when dulse, a frilly red alga from the cold coastal waters of Japan's north, is broken down in the lab the way digestion would break it down, it yields a tiny four-amino-acid fragment called EVYR. Its possible role in steadying blood sugar is a hopeful thread in a much longer human search for food that supports the body's own regulation, but whether it matters in a living person is a question that still waits for evidence.
Red seaweed shows up everywhere in Asian kitchen life, wrapped around sushi, tucked into rice wraps, scattered over bowls of ramen. Known as nori in Japan and gim in Korea, it is so familiar that few have asked what it does once it is eaten. A team led by scientists at Hokkaido University has started to answer that question, and their report appears in the journal Food Bioscience.
Their subject is dulse, Devaleraea inkyuleei, an edible red alga with soft, frilly fronds that thrives in the cold coastal waters of Hokkaido. The researchers ran the seaweed through an artificial digestion process in the laboratory, meant to mimic what happens inside the human body. From that process came a new peptide, a small fragment of protein made of just four amino acids, named EVYR.
The story of why this matters follows a familiar path. After a meal, blood glucose rises, and the pancreas releases insulin to help cells draw sugar from the blood. One enzyme in that chain, DPP-IV, breaks down the hormones that signal insulin release. EVYR blocks that enzyme, allowing those hormones to stay active longer. The team measured the peptide with mass spectrometry, compared protein sequences across species, and used computer simulations suggesting other red algae might release EVYR too.
Yuya Kumagai, an associate professor at Hokkaido University's Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, sees the work as a window into everyday food. Seaweed has always been part of the diet, and this finding hints at a deeper role it may play, opening a path toward functional foods that support blood glucose control.
Still, the question at the center is unanswered. These results come from laboratory digestion and computer comparison, not from people eating seaweed. Whether the EVYR released from dulse is enough to make a difference in human blood sugar will require further study.
Red seaweed turns up in sushi rolls, rice wraps and the toppings on a bowl of ramen. Known as nori in Japan and gim in Korea, it is eaten widely across Asia. Yet for all that familiarity, much of what it does for the body has stayed poorly understood. A research team led by scientists at Hokkaido University now reports a piece of that answer, published in the journal Food Bioscience.
The work centers on dulse, Devaleraea inkyuleei, an edible red alga with soft, frilly fronds and a distinctive taste. It grows abundantly in the cold coastal waters of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture. The researchers put the seaweed through an artificial digestion process in the laboratory, designed to mimic how the human body breaks food down.
What came out of that process was a novel peptide, a small fragment of protein, called EVYR. It is made up of just four amino acids, and the team found that it could help regulate blood glucose levels.
The mechanism runs through a familiar chain of events. When we eat, blood glucose rises and the pancreas releases insulin, which helps cells absorb glucose from the blood and turn it into energy. Several proteins and enzymes take part in that process. One of them is dipeptidyl peptidase-IV, or DPP-IV, an enzyme that breaks down hormones that stimulate insulin release. EVYR inhibits DPP-IV. With the enzyme held back, those hormones stay active and can prompt insulin release for longer.
To measure how much EVYR the digestion actually produced, the team used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. That allowed them to quantify a biologically active peptide generated during the digestion of algae. They also compared protein sequences across different species and ran computer simulations, which suggested that other red algae could potentially release EVYR during digestion as well.
Yuya Kumagai, an associate professor in Hokkaido University's Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, framed the finding in terms of food. Seaweed has long been part of our diets, he said, and the research reveals a little more about its potential effect on the body. In his view, the discovery of EVYR opens up new possibilities for using red algae to develop functional foods that support blood glucose control.
Dulse joins a growing list of food sources, including fish, milk and soybeans, that contain peptides with potential blood glucose-regulating properties.
The central question remains open. The results come from laboratory digestion and computational comparison, not from people eating seaweed. Further studies will need to determine whether the amount of EVYR released when dulse is digested is enough to influence blood glucose levels in the human body.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
The discovery of EVYR opens up new possibilities for using red algae to develop functional foods that support blood glucose control.— Yuya Kumagai, Associate Professor, Hokkaido University Faculty of Fisheries Sciences
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