Gold nanos in ‘targeted drug delivery’

New research has revealed that gold nanoparticles can be strategically attached to proteins in order to form sheets of protein-gold arrays which could ultimately be used as vehicles for targeted drug delivery.

According to scientists from the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, the gold nanoparticle-protein complexes can be used to help decipher protein structures in order to identify functional parts of proteins.

Scientists also claim that the gold nanotechnology can be used to bond together new protein complexes.

“Our study demonstrates that nanoparticles are appealing templates for assembling functional biomolecules with extensive potential impact across the fields of energy conversion, structural biology, drug delivery and medical imaging,” said Minghui Hu, postdoctoral student working in the Biology Department at Brookhaven Lab.

During their research, scientists connected gold nanoparticles to an enzyme complex that helps drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria to survive.

According to the researchers, gold nanoparticles could be tailored to stop the function of the enzyme complex and in doing so impede drug-resistant TB.

The researchers also found that modified forms of adenovirus – a virus that causes the common cold and binds to the human cells it infects – could be used as vehicles to deliver drugs to specific target cells, such as those that make-up tumours.