Gold specks raise hopes for better cancer treatments, says study

Scientists have completed a study which showed that gold increased the effectiveness of drugs used to treat lung cancer cells.

Experts say that the findings could help researchers use the device to reduce side effects of current chemotherapies by precisely targeting diseased cells without damaging healthy tissue.

Gold is a safe chemical element and has the ability to accelerate – or catalyse – chemical reactions.

Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Edinburgh Centre discovered properties of the precious metal that allow these catalytic abilities to be accessed in living things without any side effects.

Minute fragments, known as gold nanoparticles, were encased in a chemical device by the research team to control these highly-specific reactions in exact locations.

The device was shown to catalyse a directed chemical reaction when implanted in the brain of zebrafish, suggesting it can be used in living animals.

Gold nanoparticles also activated anti-cancer medicines that had been applied to lung cancer cells in a dish, increasing the drugs’ effectiveness.

Some 450 people die from cancer every day in the UK. A cancer diagnosis is made every two minutes.

Cancer medications are improving, but often damage healthy cells. 

The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers at the University of Zaragoza's Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon in Spain.

It was part-funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK), and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and is published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

(Picture: Representative Image of Gold)