This project links health, food and environmental issues, aiming to obtain neuroprotective extracts from seaweeds of the Portuguese northern coast, through the use of green extraction techniques, such as supercritical CO2 and subcritical water. Those extracts will be subsequently incorporated in a food matrix, as a proof-of-concept.
With the increase of life expectancy worldwide, the age group over 65 (the so-called silver generation) is rising. This group is very susceptible to develop neurological and psychiatric disorders, which strongly reduce their life quality and increase pressures on the healthcare system. Despite the number of pharmaceuticals for central nervous system (CNS) disorders available in the market, many of them are not suitable for the elderly. Therefore, there is a continuous need to find alternative drugs and the marine environment, as a source of unexploited bioactive compounds, is a choice by excellence. The exploitation of oceans for new drugs has been increasing in the last years and the bioactivity of marine organisms has been attributed to the primary and secondary metabolites synthesized by them. However, recent data has shown the presence of pharmaceuticals in water, including oceans, which created an urgent need to investigate whether the bioactivities reported for marine extracts are due to their natural compounds produced or to pharmaceutical contamination. So, an UHPLC-MS/MS screening of psychiatric, anti-Alzheimer's and anti-Parkinson's pharmaceuticals in the seaweed extracts obtained will be performed, which will constitute a crucial checkpoint to discharge the contaminated ones. The selected pharmaceuticals-free extracts will be tested as antioxidants and CNS-enzyme inhibitors in cell-free assays, and the most active ones will be submitted to in vitro digestion and re-evaluated using the same assays. The chemical profile of the ten most potent extracts/metabolites will be characterized by hyphenated chromatographic methods (UHPLC-MS/MS, HPLC-DAD, GC-MS and GC-FID), targeting metabolites such as carotenoids, fatty acids, phlorotannins and polysaccharides, among others. These extracts/metabolites will be subsequently encapsulated in apolipoprotein E (ApoE)-functionalized liposomes. Their stability and in vitro digestibility will constitute a second checkpoint, and the most stable and undigested liposomes will be selected for further assays, namely, permeability through an in vitro model of blood brain barrier (BBB) and neuroprotection in cell assays. Finally, the most promising encapsulated extract will be incorporated in a food product, namely, gelatin or lactose-free yogurt, as a proof-of-concept. All steps of the project, from sample collection to functional food production, will be evaluated by life cycle analysis (LCA) to assess their environmental, economic and social impacts.