Publications by authors named "Porcel E"

Article Synopsis
  • This work investigates a new cancer treatment strategy using porous metal-organic frameworks (nanoMOFs) combined with the anti-cancer drug Gemcitabine monophosphate (GemMP) and particle therapy, which improves precision in targeting tumors compared to traditional radiotherapy.
  • The study addresses key challenges in cancer therapy, particularly the impact of hypoxia and the microenvironment around tumors, showing that GemMP-loaded nanoMOFs enhance the effectiveness of particle therapy in both oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor conditions while allowing for lower radiation doses.
  • The research concludes that nanoMOFs significantly improve drug delivery to cancer cells, demonstrating potential for developing "all-in-one" nanodrugs that optimize treatment and increase the cytotoxic effects on hypoxic tumors.
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  • AGuIX nanoparticles are gadolinium-based agents that serve as both MRI contrast agents and enhance the effectiveness of X-ray radiation therapy for cancer treatment.
  • A phase I trial tested the safety and optimal dosage of AGuIX in combination with conventional therapies for 12 patients with advanced cervical cancer, showing good tolerability and no severe side effects.
  • The treatment resulted in complete remission of the primary tumors in all but one patient, highlighting the potential of these nanoparticles to improve the precision of tumor targeting and enhance radiotherapy outcomes.
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We report the synthesis of biocompatible perfluorinated micelles designed to improve radiotherapeutic efficacy in a radioresistant tumor environment. In vitro and in vivo behaviors of perfluorinated micelles were assessed at both cellular and tissular levels. The micellar platform offers key advantages as theranostic tool: (i) small size, allowing deep tissue penetration; (ii) oxygen transport to hypoxic tissues; (iii) negligible toxicity in the absence of ionizing radiation; (iv) internalization into cancer cells; (v) potent radiosensitizing effect; and (vi) excellent tumor-targeting properties, as monitored by positron emission tomography.

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  • Platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) show great promise in nanomedicine due to their high electron density and surface area, with intravenous injection being the preferred delivery method.
  • Research using synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) explored how these nanoparticles interact with human serum albumin (HSA), a key blood component, showing no strong complexation except for some increased thermal stability at a specific nanoparticle-to-protein ratio.
  • The study suggests a quick method to assess the potential toxicity of Pt NPs for clinical use, particularly for intravenous applications.
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  • Recent clinical trials have started exploring the use of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) in radiotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancers, but current planning doesn't consider NP concentrations in target areas.
  • A method was developed to assess the biological effects of NPs on radiation, involving a calibration phantom and advanced MRI techniques that quantified NP levels in four patients, compared against mass spectrometry results from biopsies.
  • The study showed that NPs can enhance the effects of radiotherapy by about 15% at a dose of 2 Gy, positively influencing local tumor control, suggesting a need to integrate NP effects into future radiotherapy treatment plans.
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Personalized medicine approach in radiotherapy requires the delivery of precise dose to the tumor. The concept is to increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy while sparing the surrounding heathy tissue. This can be achieved by the use of high-Z metal-based nanoparticles (NPs) as radio-enhancers and PET imaging for mapping NPs distribution to guide the irradiation.

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Correction for 'Quantifying nanotherapeutic penetration using a hydrogel-based microsystem as a new 3D platform' by Saba Goodarzi , , 2021, , 2495-2510, DOI: 10.1039/D1LC00192B.

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The huge gap between 2D in vitro assays used for drug screening and the in vivo 3D physiological environment hampered reliable predictions for the route and accumulation of nanotherapeutics in vivo. For such nanotherapeutics, multi-cellular tumour spheroids (MCTS) are emerging as a good alternative in vitro model. However, the classical approaches to produce MCTS suffer from low yield, slow process, difficulties in MCTS manipulation and compatibility with high-magnification fluorescence optical microscopy.

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High-Z metallic nanoparticles (NPs) are new players in the therapeutic arsenal against cancer, especially radioresistant cells. Indeed, the presence of these NPs inside malignant cells is believed to enhance the effect of ionizing radiation by locally increasing the dose deposition. In this context, the potential of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) as radiosensitizers was investigated in two breast cancer cell lines, T47D and MDA-MB-231, showing a different radiation sensitivity.

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Article Synopsis
  • 2D cell cultures are limited as they do not replicate the complex interactions of cells with their extracellular matrix (ECM), prompting the development of 3D cell models to simulate these conditions.
  • The new "3D cell collagen-based model" (3D-CCM) offers a reproducible and cost-effective way to study how the ECM affects cell behavior, allowing for real-time imaging and easy recovery of cells for analysis.
  • By comparing the efficacy of treatments in 3D-CCMs versus traditional 2D cultures, this model demonstrates superior results, making it a more ethical and efficient method for evaluating therapeutic responses.
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Purpose: Metal-based nanoparticles (M-NPs) have attracted great attention in nanomedicine due to their capacity to amplify and improve the tumor targeting of medical beams. However, their simple, efficient, high-yield and reproducible production remains a challenge. Currently, M-NPs are mainly synthesized by chemical methods or radiolysis using toxic reactants.

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Article Synopsis
  • AGuIX is a gadolinium-based nanoagent that enhances radiotherapy and medical imaging and is currently in clinical trials.
  • This study investigates how AGuIX interacts with human serum albumin, the most common blood protein, finding that it doesn't bind to the protein but increases its stability.
  • The research indicates that using AGuIX poses minimal risks to the bloodstream, and the methods developed can help assess other nano-products' effects on blood components.
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Article Synopsis
  • * MNPs can serve in clinical applications such as enhancing radiation doses, drug delivery, and improving immunotherapy, as well as combining diagnostic and therapeutic approaches (theranostics).
  • * The document includes insights from experts on the current state of research, challenges faced, and anticipated technological advancements to overcome these obstacles.
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Nanomedicine has stepped into the spotlight of radiation therapy over the last two decades. Nanoparticles (NPs), especially metallic NPs, can potentiate radiotherapy by specific accumulation into tumors, thus enhancing the efficacy while alleviating the toxicity of radiotherapy. Water radiolysis is a simple, fast and environmentally-friendly method to prepare highly controllable metallic nanoparticles in large scale.

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Radiotherapy is one of the main treatments used to fight cancer. A major limitation of this modality is the lack of selectivity between cancerous and healthy tissues. One of the most promising strategies proposed in this last decade is the addition of nanoparticles with high-atomic number to enhance radiation effects in tumors.

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Nanomedicine recently emerged as a novel strategy to improve the performance of radiotherapy. Herein we report the first application of radioenhancers made of nanoscale metal-organic frameworks (nanoMOFs), loaded with gemcitabine monophosphate (Gem-MP), a radiosensitizing anticancer drug. Iron trimesate nanoMOFs possess a regular porous structure with oxocentered Fe trimers separated by around 5 Å (trimesate linkers).

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The use of nanoparticles, in combination with ionizing radiation, is considered a promising method to improve the performance of radiation therapies. In this work, we engineered mono- and bimetallic core-shell gold-platinum nanoparticles (NPs) grafted with poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG). Their radio-enhancing properties were investigated using plasmids as bio-nanomolecular probes and gamma radiation.

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Nanomedicine has undergone significant development since the 2000s and it is only very recently that two metallic nanoparticles have emerged in clinical trials. The mechanism of these radiosensitizing agents is based on the presence of atoms with a high atomic number (Z) allowing a higher dose deposition into the tumor during irradiation. The first nanoparticle used in humans is NBTXR3, composed of hafnium (Z=79), with intratumor injection for the treatment of sarcoma.

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Ultrasmall polyaminocarboxylate-coated gold nanoparticles (NPs), Au@DTDTPA and Au@TADOTAGA, that have been recently developed exhibit a promising potential for image-guided radiotherapy. In order to render the radiosensitizing effect of these gold nanoparticles even more efficient, the study of their localization in cells is required to better understand the relation between the radiosensitizing properties of the agents and their localization in cells and in tumors. To achieve this goal, post-functionalization of Au@DTDTPA nanoparticles by near-infrared (NIF) organic dyes (aminated derivative of cyanine 5, Cy5-NH) was performed.

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From the very beginnings of radiotherapy, a crucial question persists with how to target the radiation effectiveness into the tumor while preserving surrounding tissues as undamaged as possible. One promising approach is to selectively pre-sensitize tumor cells by metallic nanoparticles. However, though the "physics" behind nanoparticle-mediated radio-interaction has been well elaborated, practical applications in medicine remain challenging and often disappointing because of limited knowledge on biological mechanisms leading to cell damage enhancement and eventually cell death.

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AGuIX are sub-5 nm nanoparticles made of a polysiloxane matrix and gadolinium chelates. This nanoparticle has been recently accepted in clinical trials in association with radiotherapy. This review will summarize the principal preclinical results that have led to first in man administration.

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Cancer radiation therapy with charged particle beams, called particle therapy, is a new therapeutic treatment presenting major advantages when compared to conventional radiotherapy. Because ions have specific ballistic properties and a higher biological effectiveness, they are superior to x-rays. Numerous medical centres are starting in the world using mostly protons but also carbon ions as medical beams.

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Backgroud: Small metallic nanoparticles are proposed as potential nanodrugs to optimize the performances of radiotherapy. This strategy, based on the enrichment of tumours with nanoparticles to amplify radiation effects in the tumour, aims at increasing the cytopathic effect in tumours while healthy tissue is preserved, an important challenge in radiotherapy. Another major cause of radiotherapy failure is the radioresistance of certain cancers.

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Background: Tumor targeting of radiotherapy represents a great challenge. The addition of multimodal nanoparticles, such as 3 nm gadolinium-based nanoparticles (GdBNs), has been proposed as a promising strategy to amplify the effects of radiation in tumors and improve diagnostics using the same agents. This singular property named theranostic is a unique advantage of GdBNs.

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Using synchrotron radiation-based circular dichroism spectroscopy, we found that the DNA damage response induces an increase of α-helix structure and a decrease of β-strand and turn structures in histone H2A-H2B extracted from x-irradiated human HeLa cells. The structural alterations correspond to the assumption that an average of eight amino acid residues form new α-helix structures at 310 K. We propose the structural transition from β-strand and turn structures to an α-helix structure in H2A-H2B as a novel, to our knowledge, process involved in the DNA damage response.

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