In vitro and in vivo behaviour of paclitaxel loaded lipid nanocapsules

International audienc

An experimental program to characterize confined explosions of hydrogen/oxygen mixtures in the context of radioactive material transport between CEA nuclear facilities

International audienceCEA, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, carries out a variety of nuclear research programs in many research reactors and nuclear facilities, decommissioning and dismantling operations that require multiple transports of different type of radioactive material such as radioactive waste or experimental fuel rods using a wide range of transportation packages. Packages are designed, constructed and operated to meet safety and regulatory requirements and must be approved by the French Safety Authority. Application for package approval (e.g. type B package) requires a complete and thorough safety demonstration in which flammable gas generation like radiolysis has become a major issue in the last few years.To face these challenges, the CEA unit in charge of transport package construction and transport operations (CEA/STMR, Cadarache Center, France), has developed a many-sided approach based on one hand on a better knowledge of both hydrogen gas generation and oxygen consumption in waste materials, and on the other hand, on design of transport packages or waste containers capable of withstanding dynamic pressure loads due to an inner hydrogen/air mixture explosion.This paper describes the experimental program that CEA/STMR has decided to implement in order to better characterize confined space explosions of hydrogen/oxygen mixtures. It presents how pressure profiles were experimentally measured in various pressure and temperature conditions which are representative of normal and accident transport conditions. It describes how different experimental set-ups were designed and improved progressively so as to obtain reliable and reproducible detonation conditions, investigate the influence of water vapor and characterize pressure profiles (peak pressure, residual pressure, peak duration).This experimental data will be used to qualify computational models and tools that are used to calculate the structural response of waste containers or fuel canisters, and finally demonstrate the safety of transport packages following an inner hydrogen explosion

Thermal decomposition of radio-oxidized polyethylene

International audienc

Evaluation of CLaMS, KASIMA and ECHAM5/MESSy1 simulations in the lower stratosphere using observations of Odin/SMR and ILAS/ILAS-II

1-year data sets of monthly averaged nitrous oxide (N2O) and ozone (O3) derived from satellite measurements were used as a tool for the evaluation of atmospheric photochemical models. Two 1-year data sets, one solar occultation data set derived from the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS and ILAS-II) and one limb sounding data set derived from the Odin Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (Odin/SMR) were employed. Here, these data sets are used for the evaluation of two Chemical Transport Models (CTMs), the Karlsruhe Simulation Model of the Middle Atmosphere (KASIMA) and the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) as well as for one Chemistry-Climate Model (CCM), the atmospheric chemistry general circulation model ECHAM5/MESSy1 (E5M1) in the lower stratosphere with focus on the Northern Hemisphere. Since the Odin/SMR measurements cover the entire hemisphere, the evaluation is performed for the entire hemisphere as well as for the low latitudes, midlatitudes and high latitudes using the Odin/SMR 1-year data set as reference. To assess the impact of using different data sets for such an evaluation study we repeat the evaluation for the polar lower stratosphere using the ILAS/ILAS-II data set. Only small differences were found using ILAS/ILAS-II instead of Odin/SMR as a reference, thus, showing that the results are not influenced by the particular satellite data set used for the evaluation. The evaluation of CLaMS, KASIMA and E5M1 shows that all models are in agreement with Odin/SMR and ILAS/ILAS-II. Differences are generally in the range of \ub120%. Larger differences (up to −40%) are found in all models at 500\ub125 K for N2O mixing ratios greater than 200 ppbv, thus in air masses of tropical character. Generally, the largest differences were found for the tropics and the lowest for the polar regions. However, an underestimation of polar winter ozone loss was found both in KASIMA and E5M1 both in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere

A winning strategy to improve the anticancer properties of Cisplatin and Quercetin based on the nanoemulsions formulation

The aim of the present study was the proposal of a strategy to permit the safe use of the powerful antitumor agent Cisplatin. Considering the possibility of reducing the oxidative stress responsible for the Cisplatin induced nephrotoxicity by using antioxidants, such as flavonoids, we proposed the concomitant therapeutic association of Cisplatin with Quercetin. Considering the poor solubility of Quercetin, nanoemulsions have been proposed to encapsulate and facilitate the use of the drug. Originally, the concomitant encapsulation of Quercetin with Cisplatin has been also assessed. The obtained formulations have been characterized and tested against two human cell models, namely the human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 and the normal HEK-293 renal cells. We demonstrated that the new formulated nanoemulsions have improved the anticancer properties of both the molecules and, most importantly, the synergistic effect of the Cisplatin/Quercetin against the MDA-MB-231. Moreover, the dramatic cytotoxic effects of Cisplatin against the human renal HEK-293 cells have been significantly diminished by the use of nanoemulsions containing both the molecules, whereas the antioxidant properties of encapsulated Quercetin have been improved. Finally, the simple process used to obtain the nanoemulsions and the physico-chemical properties compatible with parenteral administration, the stability and the improved pharmaceutical effects contribute to the high potential of this strategy to be studied in future in vivo studies