Gold Nanoparticle Cancer Research News
#4

Originally Posted on 01/29/2018 @ 5:02 pm

Last Updated and Edited on 01/31/2018 @ 2:16 pm

by Steven Warrenfeltz

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Hello,

Gold Nanoparticle Cancer Research is one of the most promising cancer treatments that are in the research pipeline, it is a non-invasive cancer treatment that kills cancer cells without hurting the surrounding healthy tissue and it does not have harmful side-effects.

For the last six-years, I've been helping people understand how gold nanoparticles offer a better way to treat cancer than the methods we are using today, most notably 'traditional chemo and traditional radiation therapies.'

Gold Nanoparticle Cancer Research News #4

This is the guide's fourth issue of the Gold Nanoparticle Cancer Research News Report, however, it is the first issue posted in over two months.

News from the research community can often be sparsely released during the holidays.

This news report covers new Gold Nanoparticle Cancer Research that's been released since the last report in late November of 2017.

Below is a glimpse into what you'll find in this issue:

Researchers at the University of Texas are using super computers to develop a cancer fighting 'Golden Pill'
Washington State University professor develops a new gold-platinum nanoparticle to fight cancer.
CRISPR-Cas9, Chinese scientists find more proof that gold nanoparticles should be used to deliver the genome-editing tool.

All of the articles below have been summarized, direct links to the original articles and research studies are posted with each summary.

Designing a Golden Pill...

Researchers out of the University of Texas are trying to figure out the best way to developing a microscopic golden nano pill that will kill cancer cells.

In the study, researchers are using supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas, as well as supercomputers in San Diego, California to test how the pills would interact inside the body before they create them in the lab.

The goal is to develop a golden nano pill that will navigate through the blood stream, and once it has found its cancerous target, it would release a payload of cancer killing drugs when a infrared light was shown them.

To clarify, these pills won't be swallowed, nanoparticles are a hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair, instead, the goal is that once these pills have been developed, tested and approved, large quantities of these tiny pills will be injected into the human body.

In the article: Dr. Zhenpeng Qin, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bio-engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, stated the following about why they are using supercomputers in the development of these pills:

"A lot of people make nanoparticles and observe them using electron microscopy," Qin said. "But the computations give us a unique angle to the problem. They provide an improved understanding of the fundamental interactions and insights so we can better design these particles for specific applications." Zhenpeng Qin - assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering at the University of Texas at Dallas

The article goes on to state that Dr. Qin and the research team are testing different combinations of gold nanoparticles, including grouping or compacting gold nanoparticles together to enhance their collective attributes.

See the full article here Designing a golden nanopill - PHYS.ORG

Researchers use
Gold & Platinum Nanoparticles
to Fight Cancer

In this next study, researchers at Washington State University have developed nanoparticles made of gold and platinum to enhance their tumor-killing properties when heated.

In this study, the researchers targeted the mitochondria of the cancer cell.

Mitochondria are organelles found in cells, their primary function is to produce energy for the cell, which means that if the mitochondria are destroyed, the cell cannot survive.

The researchers used highly porous, core-shell gold-platinum nanoparticles that have a high surface area which allowed them to deliver more cancer-killing drugs to the tumor.

Once the Au-Pt nanoparticles were inside the cancer cell's mitochondria, the researchers used a cancer treatment called Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) to activate them.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment that uses a drug, called a photosensitizer, and light to treat cancer, the treatment is known for having fewer side-effects, but it is often less effective.

When the light of the photodynamic therapy was shown on the gold-platinum nanoparticles they released the photosensitizing drug, which created a catalytic reaction releasing oxygen through 'Reactive Oxygen Species' (ROS) that killed the cancer cell.

In addition, the researchers found that the gold-platinum nanoparticles enhanced the reaction inside the cell's mitochondrial by creating a ROS burst, making the Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) more lethal to the cancer cells.

In conclusion, the researchers found that gold-platinum nanoparticles made Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) more effective at killing cancer cells.

The lead researcher Annie Du, a professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering stated the following about the results of the study:

"The new procedure, if approved for use, will mean fewer side effects for cancer patients." and "Ours is a targeted system, we increase drug concentration in the cancer cell itself, not in other parts of the body. This means physicians can prescribe smaller amounts of drugs." - Annie Du, research professor in WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

See the full article here: WSU researchers use gold to target, kill cancer cells with less drugs by Siddharth Vodnala, intern, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture - WSU News

Gold Nanoparticles for the Delivery of CRISPR-Cas9

CRISPR stands for (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) it is a genome-editing tool that is centered on splicing DNA.

It inhibits bad genes by removing a bad DNA strand and replacing it with a corrected strand of DNA code.

CRISPR-Cas9 have had lots of good results in several 'in vitro' or in the lab cancer research studies, but one big problem for this research that the genome-editing tool has a problem with is getting to its expected destination in a living specimen.

Plus, researchers have found out that the longer the CRISPR-Cas9 DNA-editing-tool hangs around in the body, the more it becomes a threat to the body because it could make unwanted 'edits.'

In the first issue of this report, seen here, I posted what the Director of NIH (National Institute of Health) had to say about using Gold Nanoparticles as the delivery system for CRISPR-Cas9.

You can see what the Director of NIH wrote here: Gene Editing: Gold Nanoparticle Delivery Shows Promise - National Institute of Health’s - ‘Director’s Blog.’

The last research study in this GNP Cancer Research News Report comes out of Beijing, China, at its National Center for NanoScience and Technology.

The researchers noted that they chose gold nanoparticles because they can be easily modified for various biological molecules.

In the study, once the gold nanoparticles found their targets, lasers were used to separate the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool from its nano-gold delivery vehicle.

When the separation occurred, this enabled the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to knockout of the targeted gene killing the cancer cells and inhibiting tumor growth.

The study has provided more positive results for using Gold Nanoparticles as CRISPR-Cas9's delivery system.

Plus, the research notes that gold nanoparticles add a complementary factor to aiding CRISPR-Cas9 by acting as thermo-therapeutic agent.

At the end of the study, the following is stated:

“In summary, this relatively simple design using gold nanoparticles, peptides, and lipids assembled into a sophisticated multifunctional carrier/release system could serve as a multifunctional delivery platform for various aspects of gene therapy.”

See the full article here: Gold Nanoparticles for the Delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 Therapeutics - ChemistryViews

One last thing...

To learn more about Gold Nanoparticles and how their specific attributes help kill cancer; 'click here', on the page you’ll learn all there is to know about Gold Nanoparticle Cancer Research

In addition, earlier this month, I started The Angel of Healing Cancer Research Fund which supports Gold Nanoparticle Cancer Research, visit this page to learn more about this new fund and the research it supports.

Thank You for your Time.

Take Care & God Bless,

Steve