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Tuesday, 9th March 2010 (1641 views)

Gold sandwiched between iron oxide in a dumbbell-shaped nanoparticle has been used by scientists at Cornell University to identify, target and destroy cancerous cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

Researchers led by Dr Carl Batt developed the "smart" therapy by attaching antibodies that target molecules only found in colorectal cancer cells to the nanoparticles.

Once the antibody identified and bound itself to the diseased tissue, the gold nanodumbbells were engulfed by the cancer cells.

The cells were then killed by heating the metal to a few degrees above body temperature using a near-infrared laser.

Graduate student and the lead author of the research Dickson Kirui said: "If, down the line, you could clinically just target the cancer cells, you could then spare the healthy surrounding cells from being harmed - that is the critical thing."

He added that gold was chosen for the study because it is biocompatible, relatively easy to chemically engineer and can be tuned to different wavelengths of energy by changing its size and shape.

Cornell University is based in Ithaca, New York.

 

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