Neutron Capture Therapy (NCT) & In-Hospital Neutron Irradiator (IHNI)——a new technology on binary targeting radiation therapy of cancer

BNCT is finally becoming "a new option against cancer".The difficulties for its development progress of that firstly is to improve the performance of boron compounds,secondly,it is the requirements of quantification and accuracy upon radiation dosimetry evaluation in clinical trials.Furthermore,that is long anticipation on hospital base neutron sources.It includes dedicated new NCT reactor,accelerator based neutron sources,and isotope source facilities.In addition to reactors,so far,the technology of other types of sources for clinical trials is not yet completely proven.The In-Hospital Neutron Irradiator specially designed for NCT,based on the MNSR successfully developed by China,can be installed inside or near the hospital and operated directly by doctors.The Irradiator has two neutron beams for respective treatment of the shallow and deep tumors.It is expected to initiate operation in the end of this year.It would provide a safe,low cost,and effective treatment tool for the NCT routine application in near future.

Folate receptor-mediated boron-10 containing carbon nanoparticles as potential delivery vehicles for boron neutron capture therapy of nonfunctional pituitary adenomas

Invasive nonfunctional pituitary adenomas(NFPAs) are difficult to completely resect and often develop tumor recurrence after initial surgery.Currently,no medications are clinically effective in the control of NFPA.Although radiation therapy and radiosurgery are useful to prevent tumor regrowth,they are frequently withheld because of severe complications.Boron neutron capture therapy(BNCT) is a binary radiotherapy that selectively and maximally damages tumor cells without harming the surrounding normal tissue.Folate receptor(FR)-targeted boron-10 containing carbon nanoparticles is a novel boron delivery agent that can be selectively taken up by FR-expressing cells via FR-mediated endocytosis.In this study,FR-targeted boron-10 containing carbon nanoparticles were selectively taken up by NFPAs cells expressing FR but not other types of non-FR expressing pituitary adenomas.After incubation with boron-10 containing carbon nanoparticles and following irradiation with thermal neutrons,the cell viability of NFPAs was significantly decreased,while apoptotic cells were simultaneously increased.However,cells administered the same dose of FR-targeted boron-10 containing carbon nanoparticles without neutron irradiation or received the same neutron irradiation alone did not show significant decrease in cell viability or increase in apoptotic cells.The expression of Bcl-2 was down-regulated and the expression of Bax was up-regulated in NFPAs after treatment with FR-mediated BNCT.In conclusion,FR-targeted boron-10 containing carbon nanoparticles may be an ideal delivery system of boron to NFPAs cells for BNCT.Furthermore,our study also provides a novel insight into therapeutic strategies for invasive NFPA refractory to conventional therapy,while exploring these new applications of BNCT for tumors,especially benign tumors.

High-performance spherical LiVPO4F/C cathode enabled by facile spray pyrolysis

LiVPO4F suffers problems of difficulty in synthesis and poor conductivity. To solve these,herein sub-micro spherical LiVPO4F/C is synthesized from a highly-reactive hollow VPO4/C sphere that is derived from a facile and fast spray pyrolysis for the first time. Uniform carbon coating layer with a thickness of 5–8 nm is observed on the surface of the particles,helping to improve the electronic conductivity,suppress the particle growth and protect the particles from corrosion by the electrolyte. The particles are shaped as fine sub-micro spheres,which are beneficial for shortening the distance for Li+ transport. Rietveld refinement for the X-ray diffraction pattern of as-prepared sample shows high-purity triclinic LiVPO4F with an enlarged lattice volume,enabling faster Li+ transport in the prepared material. Accordingly,the resulted LiVPO4F/C demonstrates superior electrochemical properties,delivering 135.4,91.1 mA hg-1 at 1,40 C respectively,and remaining the capacity of 93.3 mA hg-1 after 500 cycles at 20 C with the retention of 95.0%. The method introduced here provides an efficient way to address the serious problems of preparing high-purity Li VPO4F with good conductivity.