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Wednesday, 23rd July 2008 (2441 views)

New research from the Case Western Reserve University has cut the delivery time of cancer-fighting drugs by using gold nanoparticles.

It currently takes up to two days for the drugs to be delivered to diseased areas in the body.

However, testing on mice has cut the time down to hours instead of days.

The system was created by Clemens Burda, associate professor of chemistry and director of the Centre for Chemical Dynamics and Nanomaterials Research at Case Western Reserve University and graduate student Yu Cheng.

"The system uses gold nanoparticle vectors to deliver photodynamic therapy (PDT) drugs through the bloodstream to cancerous sites," said the university.

According to Mr Burda, gold is non-toxic to the body and so that is why they chose it to deliver the PDT drugs.

Gold nanoparticles also don't interact with proteins in the bloodstream and therefore the drug is kept safe until it reaches cancerous cells.

In 2006, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California found gold nanorods can help to detect and kill cancer cells.

 

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