Chemo-Carrying Gold Nanoparticles Tested on Mesothelioma

Italian researchers have found early success using gold nanoparticles as a chemotherapy-delivery vehicle for mesothelioma. They are hopeful their discovery will lead to an improvement in mesothelioma treatment in the future. The researchers tested their strategy on pleural mesothelioma cells in the lab. They first designed gold nanoparticles with a specific antibody targeted to the cells. Then they loaded the chemotherapy drug Alimta (pemetrexed) into the nanoparticles and observed its effect on the cancer cells. Delivering Alimta through the gold nanoparticles proved more effective than standard chemotherapy. But the method has not been tested in humans yet, and more research needs to be done. Researchers published the study in January in the International Journal of Nanomedicine. “The use of nanoparticles as innovative drug delivery vehicles that specifically target against a range of disease-responsible cells represents a huge opportunity to selectively challenge tumor cells,” the authors wrote. Valuable Properties of Gold Nanoparticles Gold nanoparticles are not toxic to cells at the concentration researchers use, and the nanoparticles are so small that the human immune system ignores them. For these reasons, many researchers believe gold-nanoparticle-based therapies could have a low risk of side effects. Gold nanoparticles can be designed with antibodies that encourage cancer cells to absorb them. The Italian study used an antibody targeting CD146, which is overe...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news