Using gold to fight cancer

Being a drug geek I am always on the lookout for new drug delivery devices and drug vectors which allow pharmaceuticals to more efficiently penetrate that pesky cell membrane. And now, thanks to the miracle of nanotech and that most favorite of metals -- gold -- a team of scientists have created a drug-delivery method unlike any ever seen. Read on...

Rice University chemists have discovered a way to load dozens of molecules of the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel onto tiny gold spheres. The result is a tiny ball, many times smaller than a living cell that literally bristles with the drug.

Paclitaxel, which is sold under the brand name Taxol®, prevents cancer cells from dividing by jamming their inner works.

"Paclitaxel is one of the most effective anti-cancer drugs, and many researchers are exploring how to deliver much more of the drug directly to cancer cells," said lead researcher Eugene Zubarev, the Norman Hackerman-Welch Young Investigator and assistant professor of chemistry at Rice. "We looked for an approach that would clear the major hurdles people have encountered -- solubility, drug efficacy, bioavailability and uniform dispersion -- and our initial results look very promising."

The ball of gold used to deliver the cancer-fighting molecules is actually thinner than a strand of DNA. Remember hypercarbolation anyone?