Is the translational approach becoming a reality in nanomedicine?

This paper summarizes the key points discussed at the international conference held in Angers (France) on translational nanomedicine. During 3 days, more than 150 attendees presented their works and discussed through plenary sessions on how to translate to the clinics the discoveries found at lab scale. The importance of interdisciplinary works has been emphasized. New promising strategies inspired by biology were presented, such as bacteriophage associated silicon particles (BASP) in cancer therapy. Green nanotechnology, which limits the use of potentially toxic excipients to the benefit of natural compounds, is growing. Although there are various financial helps for the research and the training of next generations of researchers, the difficulties to find funding to go to the clinics has been illustrated by the squalene-conjugated nanoparticles that find no industrial support. Large-scale production of nanomedicines is also challenging to implement and pharmaceutical companies are developing new large-scale production tools to reach the patient bedside. Last but not least, regulation requirements and patenting have been forced to evolve and adapt to these particular vectors. As a conclusion, transversal collaborative research and a design of nanomedicine based on simplicity are two important levers to help these promising drugs to reach the patient

How to design the surface of peptide-loaded nanoparticles for efficient oral bioavailability?

The oral administration of proteins is a current challenge to be faced in the field of therapeutics. There is currently much interest in nanocarriers since they can enhance oral bioavailability. For lack of a clear definition, the key characteristics of nanoparticles have been highlighted. Specific surface area is one of these characteristics and represents a huge source of energy that can be used to control the biological fate of the carrier. The review discusses nanocarrier stability, mucus interaction and absorption through the intestinal epithelium. The protein corona, which has raised interest over the last decade, is also discussed. The universal ideal surface is a myth and over-coated carriers are not a solution either. Besides, common excipients can be useful on several targets. The suitable design should rather take into account the composition, structure and behavior of unmodified nanomaterials

Five simultaneous artificial intelligence data challenges on ultrasound, CT, and MRI

International audiencePurposeThe goal of this data challenge was to create a structured dynamic with the following objectives: (1) teach radiologists the new rules of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while building a large multicentric prospective database of ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) and MRI patient images; (2) build a network including radiologists, researchers, start-ups, large companies, and students from engineering schools, and; (3) provide all French stakeholders working together during 5 data challenges with a secured framework, offering a realistic picture of the benefits and concerns in October 2018.Materials and methodsRelevant clinical questions were chosen by the Société Francaise de Radiologie. The challenge was designed to respect all French ethical and data protection constraints. Multidisciplinary teams with at least one radiologist, one engineering student, and a company and/or research lab were gathered using different networks, and clinical databases were created accordingly.ResultsFive challenges were launched: detection of meniscal tears on MRI, segmentation of renal cortex on CT, detection and characterization of liver lesions on ultrasound, detection of breast lesions on MRI, and characterization of thyroid cartilage lesions on CT. A total of 5,170 images within 4 months were provided for the challenge by 46 radiology services. Twenty-six multidisciplinary teams with 181 contestants worked for one month on the challenges. Three challenges, meniscal tears, renal cortex, and liver lesions, resulted in an accuracy > 90%. The fourth challenge (breast) reached 82% and the lastone (thyroid) 70%.ConclusionTheses five challenges were able to gather a large community of radiologists, engineers, researchers, and companies in a very short period of time. The accurate results of three of the five modalities suggest that artificial intelligence is a promising tool in these radiology modalities