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Researchers at the the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California at San Francisco can spot tumors by tagging cancer cells with tiny gold nuggets. The scientists have engineered gold nanoparticles that are strongly attracted to the "epidermal growth factor receptor," a protein that sticks out of the surface of many cancer cells. The scientists chose gold since it's extremely efficient at absorbing and scattering light, making tumors glow like cities at night. "You can tell with a simple microscope that the whole cancer cell is shining," said Mostafa El-Sayed, director of the Laser Dynamics Laboratory and chemistry professor at Georgia Tech. "The healthy cell doesn't bind to the nanoparticles specifically, so you don't see where the cells are. With this technique, if you see a well defined cell glowing, that's cancer."
El-Sayed and his team reported that "the gold nanoparticles have 600 percent greater affinity for cancer cells than for noncancerous cells." They tested the technique using cell cultures of two different types of oral cancer and one nonmalignant cell line.
El-Sayed said that the new method is not toxic to humans and allows doctors make fast and detailed cancer observations with just a basic lab microscope. "If you take cells from a cancer stricken tissue and spray them with these gold nanoparticles that have this antibody you can see the results immediately. The scattering is so strong that you can detect a single particle," said El-Sayed.
This is not the first time researchers used gold to blow cancer's cover. Two years ago esearchers at Northwestern University developed gold marking and detection systems for breast and prostate cancer as well as many other types of cancer.