Protein Hydrolysis by Subcritical Water: A New Perspective on Obtaining Bioactive Peptides.

The importance of bioactive peptides lies in their diverse applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries. In addition, they have been projected as allies in the control and prevention of certain diseases due to their associated antioxidant, antihypertensive, or hypoglycemic activities, just to mention a few. Obtaining these peptides has been performed traditionally by fermentation processes or enzymatic hydrolysis. In recent years, the use of supercritical fluid technology, specifically subcritical water (SW), has been positioned as an efficient and sustainable alternative to obtain peptides from various protein sources. This review presents and discusses updated research reports on the use of subcritical water to obtain bioactive peptides, its hydrolysis mechanism, and the experimental designs used for the study of effects from factors involved in the hydrolysis process. The aim was to promote obtaining peptides by green technology and to clarify perspectives that still need to be explored in the use of subcritical water in protein hydrolysis.

Supercritical CO2-ethanol extraction of oil from green coffee beans: optimization conditions and bioactive compound identification.

In this research, a supercritical CO2-ethanol extraction was optimized to obtain a green coffee oil rich in bioactive compounds. A face-centered central composite design was used to evaluate the effect of temperature (50-70 °C), extraction pressure (15.0-30.0 MPa), and cosolvent content (5-20%) on the extraction yield and total phenolic compound content of green coffee supercritical extract (GCSE). The experimental data were fitted to a second-order polynomial model. According to the statistical analyses, the lack of fit was not significant for either mathematical model. From the response surface plots, the extraction pressure and cosolvent content significantly impacted the extraction yield, while the total phenolic compound content was impacted by temperature and cosolvent content. The optimal conditions were a 20% cosolvent content, a pressure of 30 MPa, and a temperature of 62 °C, which predicted an extraction yield of 7.7% with a total phenol content of 5.4 mg gallic acid equivalent g GCSE-1. The bioactive compounds included 5-caffeoylquinic acid (11.53-17.91 mg g GCSE-1), caffeine (44.76-79.51 mg g GCSE-1), linoleic acid (41.47-41.58%), and palmitic acid (36.07-36.18%). Our results showed that GCSE has the outstanding chemical quality and antioxidant potential, suggesting that GCSE can be used as a functional ingredient.

Motor activation time in Parkinson 's disease

Se estudió el tiempo de activación motora (TAM), considerando para el presente trabajo como el intervalo de procesamiento intracerebral durante una prueba de Tiempo de Reacción (TR), en 17 pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson y en 7 voluntarios sanos. El TAM fue calculado substrayendo al TR premotor los tiempos de conducción aferente y eferente obtenidos por medio de potenciales evocados somatosensitivos y motores. Comparados con los voluntarios sanos los pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson presentaron valores de TAM significativamente prolongados (p < 0,02). En un grupo menor de 9 pacientes se estudiaron el TAM y el potencial cognitivo P300 mientras se encontraban bajo tratamiento antiparkinsoniano y también luego de un período de 12 horas de supresión medicamentosa. Durante el período de supresión los pacientes exhibieron un importante incremento en el TAM (P < 0,01) sin cambios significativos en la latencia o amplitud del potencial P300. Estos resultados sugieren que el enlentecimiento del TAM corresponde a un funcionamiento anormal de los circuitos dopaminérgicos involucrados en la iniciación del movimiento y no esté relacionado a cambios en la reactividad o en el estado cognitivo