The successive waves of the Covid-19 pandemic are driven by SARS-CoV-2 variants that reached critical detection levels in different parts of the world. But how evolved the Wuhan virus since its detection in December 2019 into the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) variants of concern? This is a story of mice and men, of up to 1,000,000 infected cells in one person, where each cell produces between 10⁵ and 10⁶ viral RNAs, of immune-compromised patients, the digestive tract and viral recombination.

We observed and studied the phenomenon of the redox front propagation in different polyaniline (PAni) deposited samples interfaced with liquid or solid polymeric electrolyte. The front of electrochemical conversion, in which the insulator and the conductor parts of PAni are interfaced, is studied observing the temporal evolution of the conductivity of PAni samples. The propagation of redox front was studied in electrochemically obtained thick (2 µm) and in thin (50 nm) poly-aniline films, obtained using Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method. In the configuration that we tested, the speed of the red-ox front propagation for the thin LB films was found to be 200 micron/sec opening the way for the manufacturing large neural networks, realized using PAni based memristive devices, in which the memristance can be quickly changed in the programmable manner. The prototypes of the spiking neuron connections were manufactured on the basis of lithographically developed gold contacts, bridged by electrochemically grown polyaniline and placed under polymer electrolyte layer with only one counter electrode (gate) for the whole manifold of pseudo-two-terminal memristor bridges. The spike propagation was studied in such gold-polyaniline systems. The research opens the possibility of miniature spike or rate-based neural network circuits manufacture, based on metal pads and polyaniline.

In the present study we report the efficacy of food matrices derived from olives in preventing oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and lipid peroxidation. To this end, 12 healthy volunteers were divided into 3 groups and cross-received a single dose of olive phenolics, mainly hydroxytyrosol (HT), provided as a liquid dietary supplement (30.6 or 61.5 mg HT), or as fortified extra virgin olive oil (12.19 mg HT + tyrosol). Blood and urine samples were collected at baseline and up to 12 hours after ingestion. Plasma oxidized LDL levels were measured by ELISA using a monoclonal antibody, while F2-isoprostanes were quantified in urine by UHPLC-MS/MS. Despite the great variability between individuals, a tendency to reduce lipoxidation reactions has been observed after olive phenolics intake in both, blood and urine. In addition, the subgroup of individuals with the highest baseline lipoxidation level showed a decrease in F2-isoprostanes (p < 0.05) after taking the food supplements, as well as a marked decrease in oxidized LDL levels (p < 0.01) after intake of the food supplement with the lowest HT dose. These promising results suggest that HT supplementation could be a useful aid in preventing lipoxidation. Additionally, people with a redox imbalance could benefit even more from supplementing with bioavailable HT.