Gold particles may help in cancer treatments

CHICAGO (KRT) — Extremely tiny gold particles may significantly boost gene-based treatments for cancer and other maladies, Northwestern University scientists say.

The research, published in this week's edition of the journal Science, is among the first fruits of a nanotechnology cancer center established last year at Northwestern. It concerns nanoparticles of gold that are attached to genetic material that scientists call "antisense DNA" because it works to block cell activity rather than promote it.

When antisense DNA is tied to commercial drugs such as Lipofectamine and Cytofectin, they decrease gene activity and reduce protein production, but tying the genetic material to gold nanoparticles is markedly more effective, Chad Mirkin, director of Northwestern's Center for Cancer Nanotechnology, said.

"It's like throwing a monkey wrench into the cell's machinery," said Mirkin. "When gold nanoparticles are coated with antisense DNA they're very dense and persist in the cell longer than free DNA does."

The studies were done at the cellular level in a lab, and Mirkin said much more work lies ahead before the technology can be tested in animals.