Concentration of Antioxidant Compounds from through Sustainable Supercritical Technologies, and Computational Study of Their Permeability in Skin for Cosmetic Use.

The growing interest in the cosmetic industry in using compounds of natural and sustainable origin that are safe for humans is encouraging the development of processes that can satisfy these needs. Chlorogenic acid (CHA), caffeic acid (CAF) and ferulic acid (FA) are three compounds widely used within the cosmetic industry due to their functionalities as antioxidants, collagen modifiers or even as radiation protectors. In this work, two advanced separation techniques with supercritical CO are used to obtain these three compounds from , and these are then evaluated using a computational skin permeability model.

Supercritical Antisolvent Fractionation of Antioxidant Compounds from .

The increasing interest towards greener antioxidants obtained via natural sources and more sustainable processes encourages the development of new theoretical and experimental methods in the field of those compounds. Two advanced separation methods using supercritical CO are applied to obtain valuable antioxidants from , and a first approximation to a QSAR model relating molecular structure with antioxidant activity is explored in order to be used, in the future, as a guide for the preselection of compounds of interest in these processes. Separation experiments through antisolvent fractionation with supercritical CO were designed using a Response Surface Methodology to study the effect of pressure and CO flow rate on both mass yields and capability to obtain fractions enriched in three antioxidant compounds: chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and rosmarinic acid which were tracked using HPLC PDA.

[Hepatic encephalopathy].

Hepatic encephalopathy (EH) is a severe complication of hepatic cirrhosis that is characterized by multiple neuropsychiatric manifestations. EH is usually triggered by a precipitating factor and occurs in patients with severely impaired hepatic function. Minimal EH is characterized by minor cognitive impairments that are difficult to specify but represent a risk for the patients.

Implicit task sequence learning in patients with Parkinson's disease, frontal lesions and amnesia: the critical role of fronto–striatal loops.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the fronto–striatal system for implicit task sequence learning. We tested performance of patients with compromised functioning of the fronto–striatal loops, that is, patients with Parkinson's disease and patients with lesions in the ventromedial or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We also tested amnesic patients with lesions either to the basal forebrain/orbitofrontal cortex or to thalamic/medio-temporal regions.

Clinical trial: interferon alpha-2b continuous long-term therapy vs. repeated 24-week cycles for re-treating chronic hepatitis C.

Background: Treatment options are limited for patients with hepatitis C virus who do not experience sustained viral eradication with pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy.

Aim: To compare, in an open-label, randomized study, long-term continuous interferon alpha-2b treatment with repeated 24-week courses in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus that relapsed after prior interferon monotherapy.

Methods: A total of 499 patients received 24 weeks of interferon alpha-2b, 3 MIU administered 3 TIW.