Gold Nanoparticles that Deliver Radiation
January 3, 2017 | Terry Sharrer
Gold nanoparticles are not new to biomedicine; Michael Faraday described their synthesis in 1857. Nor is their preferential accumulation in tumor tissue; which Hiroshi Maeda and Yasuhiro Matsumura reported in 1986. But what scientists in Oxford, UK have revealed is that gold nanoparticles containing an anti-telomerase drug can be irradiated to deliver a double punch to skin cancer tumors. The first low dose of radiation helps inactivate telomerase while sensitizing tumor cells to a second, higher radiation dose that kills them. MORE
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