Gold nanoparticles shine again
Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), by using gold nanoparticles and infrared light, have designed a drug delivery system that allows multiple drugs to be released in a controlled manner. The system could be used in treatments which require more than one drug.
“With a lot of diseases, especially cancer and AIDS, you get a synergistic effect with more than one drug,” said Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, one of the authors.
Devices like this can be found on the market already, but have some disadvantages when compared to the new one. For example, the time of releasing the drug must be programmed into the device — it cannot be controlled from outside the patient’s body. This new device (system) allows complete external control and supports up to 3 or 4 drugs.
This new method takes advantage of the fact that when gold nanoparticles are exposed to infrared light, they melt and release drug payloads attached to their surfaces.
Nanoparticles of different shapes respond to different infrared wavelengths, so “just by controlling the infrared wavelength, we can choose the release time” for each drug, said Andy Wijaya, the lead author of the study.
Source: web.mit.edu
