Beginning in December 2019, the world faced a critical new public health stressor with the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. Its spread was extraordinarily rapid, and in a matter of weeks countries across the world were affected, notably in their ability to manage health care needs. While many sectors of public structures were impacted by the pandemic, it particularly highlighted shortcomings in medical care infrastructures around the world that underscored the need to reorganize medical systems, as they were vastly unprepared and ill-equipped to manage a pandemic and simultaneously provide general and specialized medical care. This paper presents modalities in approaches to the pandemic by various countries, and the triaged reorganization of medical sections not considered first-line in the pandemic that was in many cases transformed into wards for treating COVID-19 cases. As new viruses and structural variants emerge, it is important to find solutions to streamline medical care in hospitals, which includes the expansion of digital network medicine (i.e., telemedicine and mobile health apps) for patients to continue to receive appropriate care without risking exposure to contagions. Mobile health app development continues to evolve with specialized diagnostics capabilities via external attachments that can provide rapid information sharing between patients and care providers while eliminating the need for office visits. Telemedicine, still in the early stages of adoption, especially in the developing world, can ensure access to medical information and contact with care providers, with the potential to release emergency rooms from excessive cases, and offer multidisciplinary access for patients and care providers that can also be a means to avoid contact during a pandemic. As this pandemic illustrated, an overhaul to streamline health care is essential, and a move towards greater use of mobile health and telemedicine will greatly benefit public health to control the spread of new variants and future outbreaks.

Research regarding the use of biopolymers has been of great interest to scientists, the medical community, and the industry especially in recent years. Initially used for food applications, the special properties extended their use to the pharmaceutical and medical industries. The practical applications of natural drug encapsulation materials have emerged as a result of the benefits of the use of biopolymers as edible coatings and films in the food industry. This review highlights the use of polysaccharides in the pharmaceutical industries and as encapsulation materials for controlled drug delivery systems including probiotics, focusing on their development, various applications, and benefits. The paper provides evidence in support of research studying the use of biopolymers in the development of new drug delivery systems, explores the challenges and limitations in integrating polymer-derived materials with product delivery optimization, and examines the host biological/metabolic parameters that can be used in the development of new applications.

Nowadays, biopolymer films have gained notoriety among the packaging materials. Some studies clearly test their effectiveness for certain periods of time, with applicability in the food industry. This research has been carried out in two directions. Firstly, the development and testing of the new edible material: general appearance, thickness, retraction ratio, color, transmittance, microstructure, roughness, and porosity, as well as mechanical and solubility tests. Secondly, testing of the packaged products—slices of cheese and prosciutto—in the new material and their maintenance at refrigeration conditions for 5 months; thus, the peroxide index, color, and water activity index were evaluated for the packaged products. The results emphasize that the packaging is a lipophilic one and does not allow wetting or any changes in the food moisture. The results indicate the stability of the parameters within three months and present the changes occurring within the fourth and fifth months. Microbiological tests indicated an initial microbial growth, both for cheese slices and ham slices. Time testing indicated a small increase in the total count number over the 5-month period: 23 cfu/g were found of fresh slices of prosciutto and 27 cfu/g in the case of the packaged ones; for slices of cheese, the total count of microorganisms indicated 7 cfu/g in the initial stage and 11 cfu/g after 5 months. The results indicate that the film did not facilitate the growth of the existing microorganisms, and highlight the need to purchase food from safe places, especially in the case of raw-dried products that have not undergone heat treatment, which may endanger the health of the consumer. The new material tested represents a promising substitute for commercial and unsustainable plastic packaging.

Nickel is naturally present in drinking water and many dietary items, which expose the general population to nickel ingestion. This heavy metal can have a variety of harmful health effects, causing allergies and skin disorders (i.e., dermatitis), lung, cardiovascular, and kidney diseases, and even certain cancers; therefore, nickel detection is important for public health. Recent innovations in the development of biosensors have demonstrated they offer a powerful new approach over conventional analytical techniques for the identification and quantification of user-defined compounds, including heavy metals such as nickel. We optimized five candidate nickel-biosensing receptors, and tested each for efficiency of binding to immobilization elements on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs). We characterized the application of nickel-detecting biosensors with four different cultivated vegetables. We analyzed the efficiency of each nickel-detecting biosensor by potentiostat and atomic absorption spectrometry and compared the results from the sample analytes. We then analyzed the performance characteristics and responses of assembled biosensors, and show they are very effective at measuring nickel ions in food, especially with the urease-alginate biosensor affixed to silver SPEs, measured by cyclic voltammetry (sensitivity—2.1921 µA Mm⁻¹ cm⁻² and LOD—0.005 mg/L). Given the many advantages of biosensors, we describe an optimization pipeline approach to the application of different nickel-binding biosensors for public health, nutrition, and consumer safety, which are very promising.

The aim of this study was to compare the physicochemical, the microbiological, and the antioxidant characteristics of unifloral honey, polyfloral honey, honeydew, and hay meadows honey. Hay meadow is type of semi-natural grassland with a great floral diversity, an important resource for pollinators. Grasslands are the source of the spring nectar honey obtained in May and June. Water content, sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose, trehalose, melezitose, maltose, erlose, turanose, and raffinose), electrical conductivity, phenolic content (gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, 4-hydrxybenzoic acid, vanilic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, rosmarinic acid, myricetin, quercitin, luteolin, kaempferol), color, viscosity, and microbiological characteristics were performed for all samples of honey. The total polyphenols content was significant for grassland honey (21.50 mg/100 g) and honeydew (30.49 mg/100 g) and less significant for acacia (0.08 mg/100 g) and rape honey (0.14 mg/100 g). All samples were microbiologically safe, and standard plate count (SPC) values were <10 cfu/g for all the samples, but the grassland honey had the highest microbiological quality: 33.3% of samples without microorganisms, 50.0% with the presence of yeast under limit, and 16.7% with yeast and mold under limit, a situation that does not meet other types of honey. The results of statistical analysis obtained with principal component analysis (PCA) showed a major difference between the grassland honey and the other types of honey.

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the complex interaction between heavy metals (HMs) and the gut microbiota, adopting a bidirectional approach that explores both the influence of HMs on the gut microbiota populations and the potential role of probiotics in modulating these changes. By examining these interconnected aspects, the study aims to offer a deeper understanding of how HMs disrupt microbial balance and how probiotic interventions may mitigate or reverse these effects, promoting detoxification processes and overall gut health. In addition, the review highlights innovative tools, such as biosensors, for the rapid, precise, and non-invasive detection of HMs in urine. These advanced technologies enable the real-time monitoring of the effectiveness of probiotic-based interventions, offering critical insights into their role in promoting the elimination of HMs from the body and improving detoxification.