High-Value Compounds in Papaya By-Products (Carica papaya L. var. Formosa and Aliança): Potential Sustainable Use and Exploitation.

BACKGROUND: Food waste is a global and growing problem that is gaining traction due to its environmental, ethical, social, and economic repercussions. Between 2022 and 2027, the worldwide papaya market is expected to have a huge increase, meaning a growth in organic waste, including peels and seeds. Thus, this study evaluated the potential use of peels and seeds of two mature papaya fruits as a source of bioactive compounds, converting these by-products into value-added products. Proximate analysis (AOAC methods), mineral content (ICP-MS), free sugars (HPLC-ELSD), fatty acid composition (GC-FID), vitamin E profile (HPLC-DAD-FLD), and antioxidant activity (DPPH and FRAP assays) were evaluated. RESULTS: Both by-products showed high total protein (20-27%), and dietary fiber (32-38%) contents. Papaya peels presented a high ash content (14-16%), indicating a potential application as a mineral source. 14 fatty acids were detected, with α-linolenic acid (30%) as the most abundant in the peels and oleic acid (74%) in the seeds. Both by-products showed high antioxidant activity. CONCLUSION: Papaya by-products display great potential for industrial recovery and application, such as formulation of new functional food ingredients.

Asymptomatic Elevation of Pancreatic Enzymes: A Case of Gullo's Syndrome.

Benign pancreatic hyperenzymemia (BPH) or Gullo's syndrome is a benign condition consisting of an oscillating elevation of pancreatic enzymes without the identification of pancreatic disease. Its diagnosis is usually incidental and by excluding other conditions that occur with elevated pancreatic enzymes. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reports of this diagnosis to this day in Portugal. A 65-year-old female was referred to an internal medicine consultation for complaints of xerostomia, xerophthalmia, and xeroderma with one year of evolution. From the study carried out by the patient prior to the consultation, an incidental elevation of amylase stands out. The sicca symptoms were attributed to sertraline since, after excluding other causes, its discontinuation resolved the symptoms. Regarding the elevation of pancreatic enzymes, the patient underwent an extensive diagnostic study for clarification without identifying any condition. The serial measurement of amylase and lipase revealed an oscillating increase in pancreatic enzymes with temporary normalization. After one year of follow-up, the diagnosis of Gullo's syndrome was established. The identification of Gullo's syndrome is extremely important as it avoids carrying out unnecessary tests in the future and allows the patient to be reassured in the face of this benign alteration of pancreatic enzymes. A follow-up of at least one year is crucial since some pancreatic tumors course with an asymptomatic increase in pancreatic enzymes.

Severe Ascites in Common Variable Immunodeficiency.

Liver disease is one of the possible clinical manifestations of common variable immunodeficiency and can range from mild hepatomegaly and persistent elevation of liver enzymes to cirrhosis, portal hypertension, and nodular regenerative hyperplasia. The last one is the most common histologic presentation of liver involvement by common variable immunodeficiency and its clinical spectrum can range from asymptomatic to cholestasis, liver cirrhosis, or idiopathic non-cirrhotic portal hypertension, with the severe manifestations being less recognised. We present a case of a 48-year-old woman who was referred for an internal medicine consultation for evaluation of rapidly progressing (span of three months) large-volume ascites and marked asthenia. The patient had a past medical history of common variable immunodeficiency and a recent episode of severe haemolytic anaemia. Peritoneal fluid analyses identified portal hypertension as the cause of the ascites. Abdominal Doppler ultrasound and contrasted abdominal computed tomography confirmed the presence of permeable hepatic and portal veins. Liver biopsy revealed regenerative nodular hyperplasia without cirrhosis. A diagnosis of idiopathic non-cirrhotic portal hypertension secondary to common variable immunodeficiency was made. Treatment was adjusted with considerable improvement in ascites. In conclusion, idiopathic non-cirrhotic portal hypertension is a possible and often overlooked complication in patients with common variable immunodeficiency and is an exclusion diagnosis that requires a high level of suspicion, especially in patients with ascites.

Treatment-induced diabetes neuropathy: reminder of an important clinical lesson.

Treatment-induced neuropathy of diabetes (TIND) is an acute, painful and rare complication of intensive glycaemic control in diabetes. We present a case of a 32-year-old man with sudden onset of severe lower limb pain. It worsened progressively and was refractory to analgesic and muscle relaxant therapies. It became so severe that the patient was impossible to stand, causing a marked impact on his daily life. He had a history of type 1 diabetes, diagnosed 3 years ago, and an episode of deep vein thrombosis of the left leg, 4 years ago. While completing an extensive workup, various analgesic adjustments were made, with no improvement. After careful revision of his medical data, a significant reduction of his A1C 6 months before the appearance of symptoms was noticed. A diagnosis of TIND was made. The patient was treated with amitriptyline and showed noticeable improvement after the first month.

Comparative analysis of the performance of commonly available density functionals in the determination of geometrical parameters for zinc complexes.

A set of 44 Zinc-ligand bond-lengths and of 60 ligand-metal-ligand bond angles from 10 diverse transition-metal complexes, representative of the coordination spheres of typical biological Zn systems, were used to evaluate the performance of a total of 18 commonly available density functionals in geometry determination. Five different basis sets were considered for each density functional, namely two all-electron basis sets (a double-zeta and triple-zeta formulation) and three basis sets including popular types of effective-core potentials: Los Alamos, Steven-Basch-Krauss, and Stuttgart-Dresden. The results show that there are presently several better alternatives to the popular B3LYP density functional for the determination of Zn-ligand bond-lengths and angles. BB1K, MPWB1K, MPW1K, B97-2 and TPSS are suggested as the strongest alternatives for this effect presently available in most computational chemistry software packages. In addition, the results show that the use of effective-core potentials (in particular Stuttgart-Dresden) has a very limited impact, in terms of accuracy, in the determination of metal-ligand bond-lengths and angles in Zinc-complexes, and is a good and safe alternative to the use of an all-electron basis set such as 6-31G(d) or 6-311G(d,p).