Showing posts with label Gold Nanotubes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gold Nanotubes. Show all posts

18 February 2015

Gold Nanotubes : Seminar Topic

On 2/18/2015

A demonstration of the biomedical use of gold nanotubes in a mouse model of human cancer was conducted successfully and soon it would be heading for clinical trials.

High recurrence rates of tumours after surgical removal remain a formidable challenge in cancer therapy. Chemo or radiotherapy is often given following surgery to prevent this, but these treatments cause serious side effects.

Gold nanotubes resembles tiny drinking straws and have the potential to enhance the efficiency of these conventional treatments by integrating diagnosis and therapy in one single system.The researchers say that a new technique to control the length of nanotubes underpins the research, by controlling the length the researchers were able to produce gold nanotubes with the right dimensions to absorb a type of light called 'near infrared'.

When the gold nanotubes travel through the body, if light of the right frequency is shone on them they absorb the light. this light energy is converted to heat, rather like the warmth generated by the sun on skin. Using a pulse laser beam the researches were able to rapidly raise the temperature in the vicinity of the nanotubes  so that it was high enough to destroy cancer cells.

In order to see the gold nanotubes in the body , the researches used a new type of imaging called 'multispectral optoacoustic tomography' (MSOT) to detect the gold nanotubes in mice, in which gold nanotubes had been injected intravenously. It is the first biomedical application of gold nanotubes within a living organism. it was also shown that gold nanotubes ere excreted from the body and therefore are unlikely to cause problems in terms of toxicity, an important considered when developing nanoparticles for clinical use.

The use of gold nanotubes in imaging other biomedical applications is currently progressing through trial stages towards early clinical studies.

Related posts:Fibre electronics , Nano-hydrogels
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