Bulletins - Sci-Tech Bulletin

Natural environment could restore your ability to concentrate using attention Restoration Therapy (ART)

Attention Restoration Therapy (ART) as termed, is a psychological theory that suggests that spending time in natural environments helps to restore an individual’s focus and attention. ART states that nature engages the mind in a gentle way known as “soft fascination” that allows the brain to rest from effortful thinking, recover attention capacity and improve concentration afterward. Activities such walking in parks, spending time by the lake-side or daily morning jogging around natural surrounding improves attention, especially for demanding tasks like working memory and executive function.

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Scientists Discover New Paths to Antiviral Therapies Against Nipah Virus

Scientists mapped the interaction network between Nipah virus and human proteins using affinity purification and mass spectrometry. The study highlights strong nuclear colocalization of viral W protein with PRP19 complex, altering p53 activity and host gene expression while its matrix protein M interacts with the DICER1–TARBP2 complex linked to RNA interference. 101 such human–Nipah virus protein interactions were studied that revealed how Nipah virus interferes with cellular pathways and highlight potential host targets and existing drugs that could guide the development of new antiviral therapies.

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Our Stress Beliefs are linked to the Physical Health Problems

Study conducted at German University found that students who held negative beliefs about stress like “stress is bad for health”, were more likely to report somatic symptoms like muscular tension, back pain, headache, migraine, chest pain, fatigue during stressful periods like academic examinations. Even after controlling for factors such as existing health status, neuroticism, and optimism, negative stress beliefs still predicted higher symptom reporting. This is because chronic stress may involve a wear and tear of stress responsive bodily hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system.

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AIRVIC: The web-based AI Tool, automating viral detection in cell cultures

AIRVIC (AI Recognition of Viral CPE) is an AI-powered automated system specifically designed to detect and classify cytopathic effects caused by animal viruses like SARS-CoV-2, BAdV-1, BPIV3, BoAHV-1, and two strains of BoGHV-4 in Vero and MDBK cell lines. Generated using ResNet50-based convolutional neural network, AIRVIC achieved high detection performance with 100% accuracy for BoGHV-4 DN-599 in MDBK cells. AIRVIC demonstrates strong potential for viral isolation and antiviral efficacy testing through its accessible web-based platform, allowing global researchers to leverage its capabilities in viral diagnostics and beyond.

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A Simpler Way to Harvest Skin Stem Cells with Microfluidic Technology in 45 Minutes

Isolation and enrichment of skin stem cells, especially CD34+cells along with dermal and epidermal cells, using two-stage microfluidic technology can now generate significant levels of hair follicles and sebaceous glands. The microfluidic devices coated with degradable antibody-functionalized hydrogels enables direct isolation and injection of CD34+ skin stem cells without prior labelling, completing the process in about 45 minutes. This technology, when scaled & multiplexed to rapidly separate large amounts of cell mixture, may improve the practicality and efficiency of regenerative therapies and future hair transplantation procedures.

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How Household Activities Increase Propylene Exposure upto 30 times

Propylene exposure above 1500 ppmv (as per Protective Action Criteria) from the residential sources such tobacco, wood combustion, cleaning agents and air fresheners are the largest contributors of acute health effects like dizziness, lightheadedness, headaches, nausea, eye irritation and respiratory discomfort. Severe exposure may also lead to central nervous system (CNS) toxicity, hyperosmolarity, hemolysis, cardiac arrhythmia, seizures, agitation, and lactic acidosis, especially in children. Indoor smoking is the largest contributor to rise the propylene levels up to 30 times and major source for individuals without occupational exposure.

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Suramin identified as a promising drug against Nipah Virus

Suramin, known for curing sleeping sickness and river blindness has been identified as a potent inhibitor of Nipah Virus (NiV) replication. At 100 µM, suramin completely abolishes the de novo RNA synthesis in NiV by binding within the NTP entry channel of the viral L protein, forming strong interactions with key conserved residues E291, K542, R551, K724, N833, and K893. By occupying this channel, the drug blocks the entry of nucleotide substrates into the active site, thereby preventing RNA synthesis n both biochemical assays and kidney cell–based systems.

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Cryo-electron microscopy reveals the structure of Nipah virus replication machinery

Study conducted by scientist at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota revealed the 2.9-Å cryo-electron microscopy structure of the Nipah virus L–P polymerase complexes. The L protein complex consists of conserved N-terminal domain, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), and GDP poly ribonucleotidyltransferase while the P protein complex consists of central oligomerization domain and the C-terminal X domain. These interact using the flexible antiparallel β-sheets domain of the P protomers and the fingers subdomain of RdRp forming a tetrameric organization crucial for replication and transcription mechanisms of the virus.

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Nipah Virus–Pseudotyped Lentiviral Vectors: A Promising Strategy for Precision Gene Therapy

Engineered Nipah virus glycoproteins pseudotyped onto lentiviral vectors enable highly selective and efficient gene delivery. These vectors achieve up to 10–100-fold higher titers than measles-based systems, resist antibody neutralization, and preferentially target membrane-proximal receptors, significantly enhancing transduction efficiency and demonstrating strong potential for targeted gene therapy applications.

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How Maternal Depression Impacts Teen Academic Success

Study found that postnatal depression among women increase risk of their children not performing well academically by 1.5 times. Maternal depression after delivery affects child’s attention by 16% while maternal anxiety during pregnancy affects the cognitive memory of the child by 17%.

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