Could gold heal lare cancers ? This is the crazy bet of several scientists american who published Thursday, September 10 a study on the use of gold nanoparticles in the fight against tumors in the American medical journal Nature Communications, report it HuffPost.
Gold particles have been studied for their properties for several years. The injection of gold nanoparticles into the bloodstream of patients, called photothermia, was tested in 2017 in the United States. This time around, the researchers managed to place the nanoparticles directly inside the cancer cells.
Burn cancer cells
This system allows gold nanoparticles to “Retain their functionality, including the ability to guide the remaining cluster towards the nucleus”, specifies in a press release Dipanjan Pan, co-author of the study. The time saving of this procedure is colossal: 30 minutes of assimilation, instead of 24 hours for the other methods.
Once the nanoparticles were integrated into mouse cancer cells, the scientists illuminated them with lasers. This had the effect of heating the gold particles and even more the tumor, thus helping to destroy the cancer cells in the area.
Before imagining an application on humans, it will be necessary to continue the experiments. Scientists have yet to “Assess the long-term effects of nanoparticles on human health”, confie Dipanjan Pan.
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