From agro-industrial waste to product to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s: scientists seek to revalue tons of fruit and vegetable waste

Canned tomatoes, frozen raspberries, wines, olive oil, dehydrated apples, juices and pulps generate waste that can reach 100 thousand tons and 1.6 million cubic meters / year of liquid waste in the case of the Maule Region, an area where many companies are concentrated.
Taking into account this situation, in an effort to decentralize scientific work and thereby give it an added value of what is now a waste, an alliance of the International Center for Biomedicine (ICC) and the Center for The Study of Processed Foods (CEAP) seeks to ensure that hydroxytyrosol (antioxidant) and quercetin (anti-inflammatory) present in the production of olive oil and apples are converted into nutraceuticals.
Hydroxytyrosol, present in the alperujo of olive oil, has multiple biological activities, highlighting the neuroprotective. Likewise, apple pomasa contains quercetin in high concentration, a flavonol with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activity.

In vivo studies (within a living organism) showed the effectiveness of this in reducing neurofibrillary ovilllos, inhibiting neuro-inflammatory processes and improving memory and learning impairment associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Nutraceuticals are foods or nutritional components of these that provide health benefits, prevention and / or treatment of discomfort or diseases. A better utility is obtained from them after passing various scientific processes and in the case of this research it is done through “green chemistry”.
“The CEAP makes the extracts, takes the waste from the industry and the process is carried out through green chemistry, that is, it uses environmentally friendly chemicals and after extraction it can be tested in cell models,” explained the doctor in biotechnology Camila Calfío Painemal (34).
Originally from Labranza (commune of Temuco), the nutraceutical specialist directs since 2020 the Projects in Neuroinnovation Ltda. and is a research associate at the International Center for Biomedicine, ICC. 
Once he graduated from the biotechnology career, Calfío began his research work of natural compounds with a renowned pharmacologist in Iquique, where the study focused on the natural plants of the altiplano that were taken to trial to evaluate their activity, pure molecules and compounds.
“There I realized that I was interested in that area of studies: investigating how natural products can exert an effect on a particular disease,” said the specialist and added: “my doctoral thesis focused on that and there I dedicated myself to nutraceuticals,” explained the specialist who did an internship in the United States and a postdoctoral on the subject.

Along the way, he led projects on the early detection of AD. One of the lines of research at the ICC is called the nutraceutical study and has a “multitarget activity” for this neurodegenerative disease that affects more than 55 million people worldwide. 
“We are working on the two lines linked to prevention and treatment, we focus on the tau protein that is responsible for the disease and we generate a model in neurons, there we see if these molecules can inhibit damage or not,” said the scientist. 
“The root cause of AD is neuroinflammation, which promotes a process that leads to pathological hyperphosphorylation (imbalance) of the tau protein and thus to the development of this pathology.”
In response to a “multifactorial disease,” this research studies and evaluates the activity of extracts and different molecules separately. The idea is to “generate a product” with this extract that meets requirements such as “not being toxic, has antioxidant activity and does not generate damage to cells,” Calfío said. 
Although there are already results, the research “is going in stages,” said the specialist. The stages are in in vitro trials (not performed in a living organism) and preclinical trials “with other toxicity models to be sure that in reality what we are designing is not toxic for human consumption.”
It is expected that by 2024 there will be a product realized: “It is our goal and we are very well focused.”

Investment in science and technology
The substance produced by the chemical union of two or more different elements is called a compound, which is sometimes required tosponibilities to achieve benefits, for example for health. 

When availability is low it can be improved “biotechnologically” through the use of “nanoparticles”, particles that mobilize numerous scientific investigations due to a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, electronic, nanochemical, or agricultural fields and in this case can “improve absorption and bioavailability” through “microencapsulations”.
-What is the status of scientific uses and developments using nanotechnology in Chile? I understand that this is well emerging still…
-It is emerging but they have done quite well. I know several people who develop in the area, including friends and colleagues, and there is a company that is working with nanosquaw and working with other biological materials, a company that like others are developing new technologies without discarding basic science.
There is a lot of potential in this area and quite a few researchers working on this. The use of nanoparticles to improve absorption and bioavailability is very powerful and more so in Chile because we are very exporters of raw materials but we do not have valorization of what our products are. Giving it a use or added value is very important and that is what those of us who are dedicated to biotechnology are doing.

-What reflection do you make from your participation in this research?
-I love this project because most of us are women, we are accompanied by Dr. Maccioni and he is multidisciplinary, there is a lot of aptitude, biotechnologists, chemists, biologists, we have international relations and we are becoming participants in something that happens in the region so we are decentralizing. 
Currently, scientists and especially younger people are getting more involved in what is happening in society, so we investigate issues that may cause impacts. 
I never imagined that I was going to be a scientist but while I was studying I went to a congress and there I realized ‘this is what I want to do, I want to create, produce knowledge, invent things’. Being a scientist is a challenge because there are different developments at the same time around the world, what you knew yesterday today is no longer and this motivates me because it challenges me permanently.
-What challenges do you think the country has in investment and scientific development?
-We should improve the regulation of food because there is nothing about how nutraceuticals are regulated in Chile, in the US and Europe this is present and with that we can advance in developments. Second, molecules that are present in food have important biological properties and can prevent disease.
More must be invested, Chile must believe more in its scientists and be able to get involved in what is happening in the country. If the State or companies invest more, we can make more and better productions that generate real impacts on society.

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Original source in Spanish