A glycoporphyrin story: from chemistry to PDT treatment of cancer mouse models.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) represents a non-toxic and non-mutagenic antitumor therapy. The photosensitizer's (PS) chemo-physical properties are essential for the therapy, being responsible for the biological effects induced in the targeted tissues. In this study, we present the synthesis and development of some glycoconjugated porphyrins based on lectin-type receptor interaction. They were tested in vitro for finally choosing the most effective chemical structure for an optimum antitumor outcome. The most effective photosensitizer is substituted by three diethylene glycol α-d-mannosyl groups. In vivo studies allow firstly the determination of some characteristics of the biological processes triggered by the initial photochemical activation. Secondly, they make it possible to improve the therapeutic protocol in the function of the structural architecture of the targeted tumor tissue.

SOFA--an open source framework for medical simulation.

SOFA is a new open source framework primarily targeted at medical simulation research. Based on an advanced software architecture, it allows to (1) create complex and evolving simulations by combining new algorithms with algorithms already included in SOFA; (2) modify most parameters of the simulation--deformable behavior, surface representation, solver, constraints, collision algorithm, etc.--by simply editing an XML file; (3) build complex models from simpler ones using a scene-graph description; (4) efficiently simulate the dynamics of interacting objects using abstract equation solvers; and (5) reuse and easily compare a variety of available methods. In this paper we highlight the key concepts of the SOFA architecture and illustrate its potential through a series of examples.