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Musculoskeletal allografts represent an important practice in orthopedic surgeries and the demand for them has been growing. For this reason, in order to reduce clinical risk and to more efficiently manage the increase of allograft usage and also to optimize timing of the surgeries, the thawing and washing processes with aseptic technique were centralized in the department of Hospital Pharmacy. This study describe the design and execution of an adapted Media Fill Test (MFT) to demonstrate aseptic thawing and washing of allografts. For this specific and innovative setting, to better simulate the actual processing steps, a surrogate system was developed to simulate the tendon allograft. The aseptic technique of four operators was assessed and an initial performance validation and the first revalidation were described. All MFT were completed successfully, with no observation of turbidity. The readapted MFT shown in this study can provide insight into this innovative and growing field to other health professionals who want to implement this service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nuclear emergency is a type of accident that can expose a highly variable number of people to isotopes and radiation [[1]]. It can take time to identify radionuclides deposited in the environment and to measure the dose adsorbed by a given individual (which decides the need for specific treatments), but treatments must be started promptly to avoid target organ contamination and deposition. The radionuclides absorbed by the thyroid could lead to thyroid dysfunction and thyroid cancer. [Extracted from the article]

Nowadays, personalized cancer therapy relies on small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, or antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). Many nanoparticle (NP)-based drug delivery systems are also actively investigated, but their advantage over ADCs has not been demonstrated yet. Here, using the Avidin-Nucleic-Acid-Nano-Assemblies (ANANAS), a class of polyavidins multifuctionalizable with stoichiometric control, we compare quantitatively anti-EGFR antibody(cetuximab)-targeted NPs to the corresponding ADC. We show that ANANAS tethering of cetuximab promotes a more efficient EGFR-dependent vesicle-mediated internalization. Cetuximab-guided ANANAS carrying doxorubicin are more cytotoxic in vitro and much more potent in vivo than the corresponding ADC, leading to 43% tumor reduction at low drug dosage (0.56 mg/kg). Advantage of cetuximab-guided ANANAS with respect to the ADC goes beyond the increase in drug-to-antibody ratio. Even if further studies are needed, we propose that NP tethering could expand application of the anti-EGFR antibody to a wider number of cancer patients including the KRAS-mutated ones, currently suffering from poor prognosis. The nature of the linker is known to affect the efficacy of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Here the authors show cetuximab-guided Avidin-Nucleic-Acid-Nanoassemblies to be superior to cetuximab-doxorubicin conjugate, and show its efficacy in KRAS mutant breast cancer, allowing for therapeutic expansion of anti-EGFR therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]