A balanced and varied diet provides diverse beneficial effects on health, such as adequate micronutrient availability and a gut microbiome in homeostasis. Besides their participation in biochemical processes as cofactors and coenzymes, vitamins and minerals have an immunoregulatory function; meanwhile, gut microbiota and its metabolites coordinate directly and indirectly the cell response through the interaction with the host receptors. Malnourishment is a crucial risk factor for several pathologies, and its involvement during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic has been reported. This pandemic has caused a significant decline in the worldwide population, especially those with chronic diseases, reduced physical activity, and elder age. Diet and gut microbiota composition are probable causes for this susceptibility, and its supplementation can play a role in reestablishing microbial homeostasis and improving immunity response against Coronavirus Disease 2019 infection and recovery. This study reviews the role of micronutrients and microbiomes in the risk of infection, the severity of disease, and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 sequelae.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by persistent inflammation, immune dysregulation, gut microbiota alterations, and impaired epithelial barrier function. Lupinus albus is a legume rich in galactooligosaccharides (GOS) that functions as a prebiotic capable of modulating the gut microbiota and mitigating ulcerative colitis-related damage. This study aimed to elucidate the effect of GOS on gut microbiota modulation and the molecular mechanisms involved in epithelial restoration and inflammation reduction. Fifteen C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to three groups (n = 5 per group): control (CTL), ulcerative colitis (UC), and ulcerative colitis + GOS (UC + GOS). UC was induced by administering 2% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) in drinking water for seven days. The UC + GOS group received 2.5 g/kg BW of GOS via gavage for 14 days. GOS administration improved mucus layer thickness, regulated the expression of tight junction proteins, reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, and modulated the gut microbiota, preventing the loss of richness and diversity. Additionally, the expression of monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) MCT1 and MCT4 was evaluated, and significant differences were observed between the groups across colon and cecum tissues. These findings suggest that GOS supplementation may play a potential role in attenuating ulcerative colitis by regulating the gut microbiota and the metabolic state of intestinal cells.

Background/Objectives: Whether the COVID-19 pandemic uniformly increased antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is contested, and aggregate analyses may mask organism-specific patterns. The objective of the study was to characterize changes in the level and slope of monthly multidrug-resistant (MDR), possible extensively drug-resistant (pXDR), possible pandrug-resistant (pPDR), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) positivity at a Mexican tertiary-care hospital, and to assess heterogeneity by organism, antimicrobial class, specimen type, and hospital service. Methods: Retrospective interrupted time-series of deduplicated bacterial isolates (October 2017 to January 2026), analyzed by segmented regression across pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-peak phases. Results: Cohort-wide MDR positivity had been declining before 2020 and rose abruptly at pandemic onset (level shift +6.81 percentage points, p = 0.0092) with a simultaneous slope reversal, reaching 24.27 percentage points above the extrapolated pre-pandemic trend by February 2022 (95% CI 14.26–34.28, p < 0.0001). The decline resumed after the pandemic peak, but the two slope changes did not offset one another (joint p = 0.0064). pXDR and pPDR moved in the same direction (+8.93, p = 0.0233; +15.40, p = 0.0113). VRE showed no significant departure, whereas MRSA declined in every phase yet departed significantly from its extrapolated trajectory (+23.68, p = 0.0040). Among species, Escherichia coli showed the largest departure from its counterfactual (+48.82 percentage points, p < 0.0001) and Klebsiella pneumoniae had the largest abrupt level rise (+14.46 percentage points, p = 0.0055), while S. aureus declined in every phase despite an abrupt rise in level at pandemic onset. At the class level, carbapenem and third-/fourth-generation cephalosporin non-susceptibility rose at pandemic onset and returned to baseline afterwards (19.1% to 28.0% to 18.7%, and 51.7% to 59.4% to 52.5%; all q < 0.001), whereas fluoroquinolone non-susceptibility rose and did not revert, climbing further in E. coli (61.5% to 65.2% to 72.7%, q = 0.0012) and plateauing at an elevated level in K. pneumoniae (37.6% to 46.5% to 49.3%, q = 0.1919 post-peak). Conclusions: Resistance trajectories across pandemic-related phases were divergent and, for the Gram-negative organisms, incompletely reversed, with the highest burden of advanced resistance in high-intensity settings. Organism-resolved surveillance and sustained stewardship are needed.