Toward an international standardisation roadmap for nanomedicine.

The French National Metrology Institute (LNE) initiated a series of events to identify priorities for test methods and their harmonisation that directly address regulatory needs in Nanomedicine. One of these workshops entitled "The International Standardisation Roadmap for Nanomedicine" held in October 2023 (Paris, France) brought together key experts in the characterisation of nanomedicines and medical products containing nanomaterials, including the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, SINTEF Industry and the metrology institutes of France, the UK, the USA and Canada, two flagship initiatives of the European Commission (PHOENIX and SAFE-n-MEDTECH Open Innovation Test Beds), representatives of a working party on mRNA vaccines at the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) and members of international standardisation and pre-normative organisations (including CEN, ISO, ASTM, VAMAS). Two take-home message came out from the discussion.

A 90-day oral exposure to food-grade gold at relevant human doses impacts the gut microbiota and the local immune system in a sex-dependent manner in mice.

Background: Edible gold (Au) is commonly used as a food additive (E175 in EU) for confectionery and cake decorations, coatings and in beverages. Food-grade gold is most often composed of thin Au sheets or flakes exhibiting micro- and nanometric dimensions in their thickness. Concerns about the impact of mineral particles used as food additives on human health are increasing with respect to the particular physico-chemical properties of nanosized particles, which enable them to cross biological barriers and interact with various body cell compartments.

Influence of instrumental parameters on the kinetic energy of ions and plasma temperature for a hexapole collision/reaction-cell-based inductively coupled plasma quadrupole mass spectrometer.

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is widely used in inorganic analytical chemistry for element and/or isotope ratio measurements. The presence of interferences, which is one of the main limitations of this method, has been addressed in recent years with the introduction of collision/reaction cell devices on ICP-MS apparatus. The study of ion-molecule reactions in the gas phase then became of great importance for the development of new analytical strategies.