Latin American scientific production on nanotechnology-based products to fight COVID-19: a scoping review

Introduction: Scientific production has experienced an unprecedented increase with the COVID-19 pandemic in a short period of time. Objective: To identify and characterize the Latin American scientific production on nanotechnology-based products with potential applications in the areas of diagnosis, vaccine, pharmacological treatment, theranostics and non-pharmacological intervention to fight COVID-19. Method: A scoping review was conducted based on the framework of Arksey and O'Malley and sought to incorporate recommendations from the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer's Manual and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The bibliographic search took place in PubMed, Science Direct, LILACS and SciELO. Studies that reported nanotechnology-based products with potential applications in the areas of interest referenced previously were included. A simple quantitative analysis was conducted to provide numerical summaries of characteristics of interest from the studies added to the review. Results: 26 (3.4%) articles published in 14 international and regional journals were included. Authors from five countries (Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Mexico) were responsible for the total number of articles that made up the review. The production of 6 (23.1%) articles included international collaboration, involving institutions from 10 countries. The median time from submission to publication of articles was 126 days (interquartile range: 58-200). Most of the Latin American scientific production consisted of narrative reviews (n = 19;73.1%). The five areas defined as of interest for this study were addressed by one of the scientific articles, especially the products intended for pharmacological treatment of COVID-19 (n = 14;53.8%). Conclusions: This is the first scoping review to provide a map of Latin American scientific production on nanotechnology-based products with potential applications in areas of interest to fight COVID-19. There are deficiencies related to the publication of basic research, representativeness of Latin American countries in the region, studies with greater strength of evidence and to international collaboration to produce scientific articles that merit to be reduced.

Regulatory Impact Assessment in Pandemic Times: a practical exercise on the COVID-19 context

This study aims to demonstrate the potential use of problem identification and analysis, one of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) stages, as an alternative to drive critical, rational, and logic thinking while formulating regulatory policies and actions to face COVID-19. The theoretical foundation included an outlook on regulation, RIA and problem identification and analysis. The authors performed a descriptive study with a qualitative approach to report on the results of the didactic-pedagogical workshop, related to problem identification and analysis on a COVID-19 situation. Seven federal workers and one trainee from the regulatory quality improvement area in Anvisa participated in the workshop. "SARS-COV-2 coronavirus dissemination, as a little- known, untreated and highly contagious virus" was the main problem identified. Ten problem- related consequences were pinpointed, including the worsening of mental health. As an illustration, the study highlighted only five of the 20 causes listed by the workshop participants. One of the investigated problem causes was the low population adherence to prevention and control measures. According to the workshop participants, 30 affected stakeholders were identified in the workshop, such as the high-risk population (elderly and people with comorbidities). Thus, this study aims to contribute to the COVID-19 coping in Brazil, as well as to other future public health emergencies.