Design and testing of a phantom and instrumented gynecological applicator based on GaN dosimeter for use in high dose rate brachytherapy quality assurance.

Purpose: High dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) is widely used to treat gynecologic, anal, prostate, head, neck, and breast cancers. These treatments are typically administered in large dose per fraction (>5 Gy) and with high-gradient-dose-distributions, with serious consequences in case of a treatment delivery error (e.g.

Internalization pathways into cancer cells of gadolinium-based radiosensitizing nanoparticles.

Over the last few decades, nanoparticles have been studied in theranostic field with the objective of exhibiting a long circulation time through the body coupled to major accumulation in tumor tissues, rapid elimination, therapeutic potential and contrast properties. In this context, we developed sub-5 nm gadolinium-based nanoparticles that possess in vitro efficient radiosensitizing effects at moderate concentration when incubated with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells (SQ20B). Two main cellular internalization mechanisms were evidenced and quantified: passive diffusion and macropinocytosis.

In vitro characterization of naturally occurring influenza H3NA- viruses lacking the NA gene segment: toward a new mechanism of viral resistance?

Among a panel of 788 clinical influenza H3N2 isolates, two isolates were characterized by an oseltamivir-resistant phenotype linked to the absence of any detectable NA activity. Here, we established that the two H3NA- isolates lack any detectable full-length NA segment, and one of these could be rescued by reverse genetics in the absence of any NA segment sequence. We found that the absence of NA segment induced a moderate growth defect of the H3NA- viruses as on cultured cells.