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Tuesday, 9th March 2010 (1884 views)

Gold nanospheres have been successfully used to destroy parasites in the human body, including one that causes cysts in the brain.

Professor Michael Cortie, director of the Institute for Nanoscale Technology at the University of Technology Sydney, told Cosmos magazine that most medical treatments involving gold nanoparticles are focused on cancer and that his research into targeting parasites is the first of its kind in the world.

His team coated gold nanospheres in a protein produced by the body to specifically target the parasite Toxoplasmosis gondii, which according to the University of Chicago Medical Center infects around a third of the world's population.

It causes toxoplasmosis, which is normally treated using anti-malarial drugs that can have serious side effects.

However, the protein-covered nanospheres attach themselves and when heated with laser light in a solution, heat up and kill the organism.

The spheres could be used to target the parasite in the bloodstream, where it normally stays for the first couple of hours of infection. Eventually, Professor Cortie said, the technique could be used to target the malaria parasite, which only stays in the blood for a few minutes.

 

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