The use of certain metals in nano form for cancer treatments, has, over the last 10 years, increased considerably. Platinum and gold in particular, have been used to increase contrast in imaging tumours; employed as ionic carriers for drugs to specific sites; utilised to prevent the spread of cancer and several other procedures. But gold has seen the most trials across a number of new medical approaches.
Nano minerals are not dissimilar to colloidal minerals in that they are suspended in distilled water. However, their particle size is way smaller and the process used in creating them is a lot more labour intensive. Gold nano particles are relatively safe, stable and easy to prepare, and they have many unique characteristics, such as small size effects, surface effects, quantum size effects, electrical effects, and optical effects.
Health benefits shown of Nano Gold include reducing symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s and other brain degenerative disorders, as well as helping those trying to overcome depression and anxiety by helping the body’s own production of Dopamine (the neurotransmitter linked with the feeling of wellbeing). There have been additional results with rheumatoid arthritis.
But it is in the field cancer where most of the breakthrough’s are coming occurring with nano gold,
At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Doctors Sina Lystvet and Wilhelm Glomm have been doing extensive research into the use of this nano particle in helping resolve different cancer forms…
The size of the nanogold gives it entirely different characteristics than the gold in a necklace, for example,” Lystvet says.
“Not much happens to a gold ring if we put vitamin C on it. It is difficult to attach different materials to a gold ring. But because nanogold is so small, it will bind to other substances, such as proteins or drugs. And that’s what we are working on. We create tiny clusters of nanogold in different proteins. The goal is to produce medicine that can fight diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s,” says Lystvet.
“If we create a cluster of gold inside a protein, the protein will naturally change shape.
A large cluster of gold will change the protein in a different way than a small cluster. We have to have complete control of this aspect. For example, if we have a shovel, but we want one with a smaller shaft or a stronger handle, it will still be a shovel. We do not want it suddenly to be a shovel with a hole in the middle. That’s the same with proteins. We want them to remain proteins, and we want to have complete control over how the proteins change, even though they have been altered,” says Glomm.
In the earliest stage of nanomedicine, the goal was to combine gold nanoparticles with proteins to come up with a new material that reflected the characteristics of both substances. The efforts that resulted in something other than this were either ignored or rejected. It is these efforts, which were previously tossed out, that Glomm has picked up and found interesting.
“What we see are samples where the protein has changed, so that the gold and the protein together result in different properties than what they previously had – the same way that a dry sponge and water combined are something more than the sum of their parts. We at NTNU are at the research front on how to use nanoparticles to alter the protein gradually, and to add that something extra,” says Glomm.
And this is where the magic happens.
Our whole body is built of cells, where the different cells have the equivalent of different nametags on them. A renal cell looks different than an intestinal cell. A brain cell looks different than a muscle cell. Different proteins are able to read the nametags on the cells.
One of the problems with today’s cancer treatments is that healthy cells are killed by chemotherapy drugs. Cancer cells are similar to healthy cells, so that the protein or drug may have difficulty only selecting the sick cells. But the nametag on a cancer cell says that that the environment around it is slightly more acidic than elsewhere, and that cancer cells are more porous.
So if a protein is changed using nanogold so that it can recognize cancer cells and penetrate them, this may allow the creation of new therapeutic treatments. The protein and the nanogold together can be used to deliver chemotherapy to the cancer cells alone. Or you can use the engineered proteins to kill cancer cells – without harming other healthy cells.
“Gold is a possible key to opening the cell walls. Gold in cancer medicine can be very effective,” explains Glomm.
But that’s not all: Medicines based on nanogold could also be tomorrow’s miracle drugs for patients with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
“In patients with Alzheimer’s, proteins stick together and form plaque, which result in poor signal transmission from the brain. When we create tiny clusters of gold inside the protein, the proteins spread everywhere and refold themselves. One of our goals is to manipulate the protein so that it will be able to recognize the plaques, dissolve them and transport them out of the body,” says Glomm.
“The size of the nanogold gives it entirely different characteristics than the gold in a necklace, for example,” Lystvet says.
“Not much happens to a gold ring if we put vitamin C on it. It is difficult to attach different materials to a gold ring. But because nanogold is so small, it will bind to other substances, such as proteins or drugs. And that’s what we are working on. We create tiny clusters of nanogold in different proteins. The goal is to produce medicine that can fight diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s,” says Lystvet.
But it’s not just as a carrier that nanogold is being utilized…it is also proving effective by itself. Hyperthermia is known to induce apoptotic cell death in many tissues and has been shown to increase local control and overall survival.Gold nanoparticles of different sizes have been shown to be suitable for a form of thermal therapy which selectively damages breast cancer cells. Results shows that cell death increases with the increase in number of gold ions.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer accounted for 9.56 million of deaths in 2017, making it the leading cause of death in the world. Deaths from cancer worldwide are expected to increase, with an estimated 12 million deaths in 2030. Current conventional therapies of this disease cause enormous collateral damage. Perhaps this new technology points to a brighter future in this field of treatment. All that glitters is not gold?