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Wednesday, 31st December 2008 (4124 views)

US researchers have developed a drug delivery system using gold nanoparticles that they say could offer benefits for the treatment of cancer or AIDS.

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created the application, which harnesses the benefits of gold nanoparticles to release multiple drugs in a controlled manner.

Researcher Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli explained: "With a lot of diseases, especially cancer and AIDS, you get a synergistic effect with more than one drug."

The method takes adavantage of certain properties of gold nanoparticles, such as the fact that they melt when exposed to infrared light – allowing drug payloads attached to them to be delivered into the body.

Lead author of the study Andy Wijaya said that the release time of the drug can be controlled by using differently-shaped gold nanoparticles and varying the infrared wavelength.

It comes after international body SPIE claimed that nanotechnology can make cancer treatment more "specific and effective".

 

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