Fact: Treating cancer with gold!

Researchers at the University of Twente (Netherlands) are developing a method for detecting and treating tumors with nanometer-sized gold particles.

Nanometer-sized gold particles will be used in cancer treatment.

" It still takes more time for this method to be applied clinically, but recently researchers have made some important breakthroughs ," said Srirang Manohar, a member of the research team.

The ultimate goal of the study is to use gold nanoparticles to detect and destroy tumors. They use gold particles about 50 nanometers long (less than 1/1000 the thickness of a hair).

Antibodies are attached to the gold bar, and ensure gold binds to the cancer cell. Since then, tumors can be detected with the help of phonics techniques (photoacausitc).

Because gold is rapidly heating up when infrared light hits, they can destroy the tumor . Some important conditions to respond such as gold bars must be made to absorb light at specific wavelengths so that tumors can be easily detected and not harmful to the body and at the same time Can stay in the body long enough to exert effect. A number of obstacles have been overcome by newly published studies.

Gold particles tend to clump together. To prevent this phenomenon, scientists initially added CTAB (cetyl trimethylammonium bromide) to gold particles. However, this substance kills healthy cells, so they replaced it with harmless compound PEG (polyethylene glucol). Not only does this prevent yellow particles from clumping, it also supports tumor location.

The researchers also conducted large-scale investigations and found that gold particles persist in the body long enough to help detect and / or destroy cancer cells.