This work aims to show Nb micro-alloying role on structural changes and glass forming ability (GFA) of Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 bulk metallic glass. Pair distribution function (PDF) analysis indicates that the minor Nb addition forms Nb-centered clusters at the short range scale. It is also revealed that the atomic rearrangement happens in the medium range order and loosely-packed structure changes to a densely-packed one. This means that the clusters tend to form interpenetrating structures at the medium range scale. This event is related to the strong interaction of Zr and Nb elements in the material. Moreover, the thermal analyses demonstrate that the sample with Nb has a greater super-cooled liquid region and better GFA. The relaxation enthalpy decreases in the Nb-content sample which is due to the formation of denser clusters at short range scale and a structural shrinkage at the medium range order of the bulk metallic glass.

The prototypical neurotropic virus, rabies, is a member of the Rhabdoviridae family that causes lethal encephalomyelitis. Although there have been a plethora of studies investigating the etiological mechanism of the rabies virus and many precautionary methods have been implemented to avert the disease outbreak over the last century, the disease has surprisingly no definite remedy at its late stages. The psychological symptoms and the underlying etiology, as well as the rare survival rate from rabies encephalitis, has still remained a mystery. We, therefore, undertook a systems biomedicine approach to identify the network of gene products implicated in rabies. This was done by meta-analyzing whole-transcriptome microarray datasets of the CNS infected by strain CVS-11, and integrating them with interactome data using computational and statistical methods. We first determined the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in each study and horizontally integrated the results at the mRNA and microRNA levels separately. A total of 61 seed genes involved in signal propagation system were obtained by means of unifying mRNA and microRNA detected integrated DEGs. We then reconstructed a refined protein-protein interaction network (PPIN) of infected cells to elucidate biological signaling transduction pathways affected by rabies virus. To validate our findings, we confirmed differential expression of randomly selected genes in the network using Real-time PCR. In conclusion, the identification of seed genes and their network neighborhood within the refined PPIN can be useful for demonstrating signaling pathways including interferon circumvent, toward proliferation and survival, and neuropathological clue, explaining the intricate underlying molecular neuropathology of rabies infection and thus rendered a molecular framework for predicting potential drug targets.

The gut-brain axis serves as a vital communication pathway through which gut microbiota modulates central nervous system function. Chronic stress disrupts this balance, leading to gut dysbiosis, neuroinflammation, and cognitive decline. While probiotics have been widely investigated, the therapeutic properties of their non-viable metabolites, postbiotics, are less understood. This study examined the neurocognitive effects of postbiotics derived from Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium longum in a mouse model of chronic variable stress (CVS). Male BALB/c mice underwent a four-week CVS protocol, followed by eight weeks of oral postbiotic administration (10⁹ CFU/mL bacterial supernatant) from individual or mixed strains. Cognitive performance was evaluated using the Morris Water Maze (MWM), Novel Object Recognition (NOR), and Shuttle Box tests, while hippocampal expression of AKT and Arc, genes linked to learning and memory, was analyzed by qRT-PCR. CVS markedly impaired performance across all cognitive tests. Postbiotic supplementation significantly reversed these deficits, with Bifidobacterium longum postbiotics exerting the most robust effects. Treated mice showed reduced escape latency and shorter platform distance in the MWM, improved discrimination in the NOR test, and increased latency to the dark compartment in the Shuttle Box, indicating enhanced spatial, recognition, and inhibitory memory. These behavioral improvements correlated with upregulated hippocampal AKT and Arc expression, suggesting strengthened synaptic signaling. Overall, postbiotic treatment, particularly from Bifidobacterium longum, effectively mitigated stress-induced cognitive dysfunction, highlighting postbiotics as promising therapeutic agents for stress-related and neurodegenerative cognitive impairments.