Gold nanosphere's that contain antibodies that latch on to cancer cells provides a really interesting new way to deal with this disease. Jin Zhang at UC, Santa Cruz indicated that ... "you could send a person home, have them shine a laser on the specific part of the body with cancer for a couple weeks, and they could be cured of cancer". Interestingly, the size of the nanosphere indicates how it responds to different wavelengths of light. Hence, the size of the sphere indicates how big an area is being affected. According to Brown University's Shouheng Sun, "once the nanoparticles have done their job and destroyed the tumour, the kidneys filter them out of a patient's body within a few hours". Most interestingly, the nanosphere can be viewed through an MRI scan, and may also be used to locate tumors -- as they latch on to tumour cells. According to a Science Daily article, such spheres therefore provide a useful sensor for locating cancers, and subsequently treating them using the approach being advocated by Jin Zhang. "What makes this structure special is the combination of the spherical shape, the small size, and the strong absorption in visible and near infrared light," Zhang said. "The absorption is not only strong, it is also narrow and tunable. All of these properties are important for cancer treatment."
Image from: Drug Discovery and Development magazine (http://www.dddmag.com/)
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