Explosive gold nanoparticles can eradicate cancer cells to the root

US scientists found that gold nanoparticles could detect and destroy the remaining cancer cells after surgery to remove the tumor, bringing the cancer cure rate to 100%.

When doctors perform surgery on cancer patients, they will try their best to remove all cancer cells, because any remaining cancer cells can develop into tumors. New or metastatic throughout the body, according to Science.

After surgery, patients are often treated with radiotherapy or chemotherapy to increase the chance of removing remaining cancer cells. But this treatment not only destroys cancer cells but also damages healthy cells, reducing the health of patients.

In a study published Feb. 15 in Nature Nanotechnology, the team at Rice University, USA, demonstrated that gold nanoparticles could kill cancer cells left behind after surgery.

Gold nanoparticles adhere to the surface of cancer cells.(Photo: DS Wagner).

Cancer tumors often have blood vessels leaking. When gold nanoparticles are injected into blood vessels, they tend to seep through these leaky vascular holes and surround the tumor. Cancer cells when developing often "swallow" nanoparticles. After getting inside the cancer cell, these nanoparticles act as Trojan horses. When researchers gave gold atoms an interaction with infrared laser light, a type of electromagnetic wave that could travel through tissues, the nanoparticles would heat up and burn cancer cells.

However, this approach has two problems. First, some gold nanoparticles can cling to normal cells, so laser heating can damage healthy tissue. At the same time, the laser used to heat gold nanoparticles using continuous infrared light. This causes heat from infrared light to spread through cancer cells to normal tissues. In the case of tumors that develop in important areas such as near nerves or arteries, all effects on healthy tissue can lead to physical weakness.

To localize the treatment area more accurately, researchers at Rice University and medical technology company Masimo Corporation sought to change the nanoparticle approach. According to Dmitri Lapotko, a member of the research team, they began experimenting with mice with squamous cell carcinoma.

The team attached gold nanoparticles to immune protein antibodies. Protein antibodies will come into contact with the squamous cell surface, allowing gold nanoparticles to stick around the cancer cells quickly. At that time, instead of continuous heating with lasers, scientists only need to use ultra-short pulse laser to heat cancer cells. Ultra-short pulse infrared lasers have low energy, no harm to healthy cells.

This method prevents heat from spreading to healthy tissues around cancer cells, while producing higher temperatures in areas with large gold nanoparticles. High temperatures vaporize nearby water molecules, creating microscopic bubbles. These bubbles quickly spread and exploded, breaking cancer cells. According to Lapotko, the key point is that gold nanoparticle clusters produce microscopic bubbles in cancer cells that are not normal cells.

Currently, this technique has only been tested in mice but researchers have been planning clinical trials in the next two years. If successful, the technique will significantly improve the rate of cancer cure for patients, especially in the case of not being able to surgically remove the entire tumor.