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Tuesday, 20th June 2006 (6420 views)

Scientists have discovered a new application for gold nanoparticles – creating microbubbles of vapour that can kill targeted cells.

The research could be used to destroy cancerous cells and builds on discoveries already made that use the tiny gold particles to kill cancer cells by converting laser energy into heat, azonano reports.

Dmitri Lapotko, of the Luikov Health and Mass Transfer Institute in Minsk, has managed to use such microbubbles to destroy leukaemia cells in samples of human bone marrow.

In order to target the cells better, the researchers used a labelling technique involving antibodies that are used to diagnose acute B-lymphoblast leukaemia in humans. The antibody itself then acted as a target for the gold nanoclusters.

Recent research by scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology had previously found that cylindrical nanoparticles, christened nanorods, could be used in cancer therapy.

Their shape meant that they could detect cancer tumours and destroy them using less powerful lasers than before.

 

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