Gold nanoparticles

ShadyGuy

does anyone have knowledge of the use of gold nanoparticles to treat b-cell lymphoma? It was touted as a possible treament about 5 years ago but seems to have gone away.

google this for a list of articles  “  Golden nanoparticle starves cancer”

Evarista

Nanoparticles

My sense is that more progress is being made in the areas of diagnostics and imaging than in therapeutics, but that's just an impression.  Specificity for the target remains a hindrance with lymphoma, I think.  There is a Phase I clinical trial in the works for paclitaxel/Rituximab coated nanoparticles for lymphomas (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03003546?term=nanoparticles&cond=lymphoma&cntry=US&rank=1). While that may turn out to be a excellent way to deliver drug to lymphoma cells, with CD20 as the target other B cells will get hit too.  I tried to find some recent open access reviews, but didn't come up with a lot.  This one from last December may interest you:  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2017.00079/full  Table 1 is a summary of diagnostics and Table 2, therapeutics.

ShadyGuy

Evarista said:

Nanoparticles

My sense is that more progress is being made in the areas of diagnostics and imaging than in therapeutics, but that's just an impression.  Specificity for the target remains a hindrance with lymphoma, I think.  There is a Phase I clinical trial in the works for paclitaxel/Rituximab coated nanoparticles for lymphomas (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03003546?term=nanoparticles&cond=lymphoma&cntry=US&rank=1). While that may turn out to be a excellent way to deliver drug to lymphoma cells, with CD20 as the target other B cells will get hit too.  I tried to find some recent open access reviews, but didn't come up with a lot.  This one from last December may interest you:  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2017.00079/full  Table 1 is a summary of diagnostics and Table 2, therapeutics.

Yes, same coclusions I came to

Originally it was used as a way to kill remaining cells after cancer surgery and used only Infrared radiation, basically radiant heat. It was injected directly into the tumor or area of concern. To work on b-cells it would need to be more target specific as b-cells are everywhere there is blood. Now it seems instead of plain gold nano particles they are coating nanoparticles of glass with gold and some are trying to attach monoclonal antibodies of various types. It sound very attractive if it works since gold is basically inert and IR radiation, as I said, is just radiant heat. It should be practically harmless and have few side effects. But that may just be a pipedream by some researchers seeking grants or it could be the next big thing in cancer treatment and developers aren’t talking much. It will be interesting to follow. Please let us know if you see any papers with more substance. 

ShadyGuy

Interesting article on gold treatment

https://www.oncologynurseadvisor.com/web-exclusives/gold-nanoparticles-kill-lymphoma-without-chemotherapy/article/279427/

apparently healthy b-cells are produced in the bone marrow and don’t absorb cholesteral. Cancer b-cells clone themselves anywhere in the body and use cholesterol as “building material”. The gold particles (colloidal gold) are claimed to interfere with cholesterol absorption in only the cancerous cells, eventually killing them. Is this our “ magic bullet”? I am skeptical at this point but what a breakthrough it would be if it is true. I understand much of the research is taking place in England.

 

 

ShadyGuy

Update

i spoke to a hematologist involved in lymphoma research. He said he sees promise in this approach but in his opinion it has a long way to go. It has been used successfully on colon cancer post surgery. Unfortunately there are a lot of snake oil salesmen trying to make money off this but there is considerable legitimate research going on. Some of it at Mayo but most is in Europe and India. So I will watch it but not hold my breath while doing so! Don’t fall for the people selling colloidal gold remedies on Amazon.com and other such sites.