Since the first reports of COVID-19 in 2019, the viral respiratory disease has spread across nations, sending the world into a global pandemic. The pandemic has heavily impacted the public health of the global community. Over 237 million confirmed cases have been reported, and more than 4.8 million lives have been lost due to the novel coronavirus. In Singapore, the government quickly took action in the early stages of the pandemic to limit the spread of the virus to protect the local communities from the disease. Singapore has been able to keep their confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths at low numbers by implementing movement restrictions, raising public awareness, mask mandates, social distancing, providing free vaccinations for the public, and utilizing advancements in technology for contact tracing. The public has also upheld their social responsibility in cooperating with the Singaporean government to control the disease spread. COVID-19 is now moving into an endemic phase in Singapore as the vaccination rates are at an all-time high resulting in lower death rates, and the confirmed cases are primarily mild to asymptomatic. Singapore has set a precedent for how pandemics can be handled in the future to minimize mortality rates and protect public health.

In the environment, bacteria can communicate with a known mechanism called quorum sensing (QS). These bacteria will communicate in a group for social interactions like a multi-cellular organism. It provides significant benefits to the bacteria in host colonization, the formation of biofilms, defense against competitors, and adaptation to environmental changes. The bacteria that organize in biofilms are difficult to control and manage, resulting in a higher dosage of antibiotics to clear the infectious biofilms. Also, many QS-controlled activities are involved in virulence and pathogenicity. Hence, understanding the details of quorum sensing mechanisms, its phenotype regulation (biofilm), and QS inhibitors (which attenuate virulence/pathogenicity) may open a new avenue for controlling bacterial infections.

Helicobacter pylori is a highly prevalent bacteria that can harm humans due to its major involvement in developing gastrointestinal diseases, particularly gastric cancer. Therefore, eradicating H. pylori is one of the most important strategies for preventing gastric cancer. Antibiotic treatment has always been the gold standard treatment for H. pylori infection. However, the decreasing efficacy of antibiotic therapy due to the rising antibiotic resistance and high incidence of dysbiosis-related adverse effects resulted in eradication failure. To enhance the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy, strategies that modulate the gut microbiome were proposed to play a positive role. Generally, the integration of probiotics or symbiotic into antibiotic therapy was shown to enhance the eradication rate and reduce the incidence of adverse effects. This review aims to discuss the role and effect of H. pylori in gastric carcinogenesis and gut microbiome modulation in eradicating H. pylori infection.

The past two years have been a turmoil for the world and people due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time in history that the whole world was on a standstill after many countries-imposed movement control orders and restrictions. Many innocent lives were lost, and the spread of infection is still ongoing. Pharmaceutical companies raced against the time to develop vaccines, believing that it would be sufficient to control COVID-19. Nevertheless, the recent emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 variant as Omicron has become a global concern. This new variant of concern (VOC) spreads faster than other VOC strains and poses a high risk, mounting fears of new waves of infections in many countries, including Malaysia. This review discussed characteristics of Omicron, the emergence of Omicron cases in Malaysia, and preventive measures to control the spread of COVID-19.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by the over-production of monoclonal plasma cells that eventually become malignant in the bone marrow. MM remains as an incurable cancer, but it can be treated through chemotherapy. Nonetheless, research on novel therapies for effective treatment of MM is ongoing and in this case the involvement of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (Btk) in B-cell malignancies has made it one of the new therapeutic targets. In MM patients, it has been reported that the expression of Btk was elevated and this could potentially contribute to chemoresistance indirectly via enhancement of cell proliferation and survival. Ibrutinib is a highly selective irreversible Btk inhibitor commonly used as treatment for B-cell malignancies such as Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). With reference to the potential involvement of Btk in MM and current treatment of MCL and CLL using ibrutinib, researchers have begun to examine the effect of ibrutinib treatment on MM. This review provides information on the association of MM and Btk in conjunction with the treatment using ibrutinib. To date, clinical trials of ibrutinib as therapeutic alternative for MM have produced promising results, particularly as combination therapy with other agents such as dexamethasone and carfilzomib. However, there is limited evidence on the Btk mechanisms involved in MM, hence, it is important to further investigate the Btk oncogenic signalling pathway(s) in MM cells in order to establish successful and improved treatment of MM.