Gifts and Gadgets

The price of gold may be going up!

"In an earlier study, we showed how gold nanoparticles could be bound to malignant cells, making cancer detection easier. Now we have examined how the particles' ability to absorb light helps kill those cancer cells," said principal author Ivan El-Sayed, MD, assistant professor of otolaryngology at UCSF Medical Center.

Many cancer cells have a protein, known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), all over their surface, while healthy cells typically do not express the protein as strongly. By conjugating, or binding, the gold nanoparticles to an antibody for EGFR, suitably named anti-EGFR, the researchers were able to get the nanoparticles to specifically attach themselves to the cancer cells.

After binding, they then exposed them to a continuous visible argon laser. "The malignant cells required less than half the laser energy to be killed than the benign cells," said Ivan. "In addition, we observed no photothermal destruction of any type of cell in the absence of gold nanoparticles at these low laser powers.

Excerpts from UCSF Today News.