Gold Nanorods for Medical Treatment By Jessie Morales

Introduction  Gold nanorods (Gnrs) are strongly absorbing at near-infrared (NIR) frequencies and can be employed as multifunctional agents for biological imaging and theragnostics. GNRs can support nonlinear optical microscopies based on two-photon-excited luminescence can enhance the contrast of biomedical imaging modalities such optical coherence tomography and photoacoustic tomography. Nanorods don’t exist in nature, they must be created by direct chemical synthesis (chemical reactions carried out with a particular end-product in mind). The elongated rod shape is a result of combination of ligands that bond to different parts of the nanorod with varying strength; allowing them to grow at different rates. Once the nanorods have been produced, they can be used in several different ways.

what are researchers trying to find?  Researchers are trying to find ways to treat cancer as a safer treatment option since only the cancerous tissue is destroyed, leaving the healthy tissue intact. Since gold nanostructures have been extensively studied in a variety of applications due to their interesting electrical, conductive and optical properties. However, the use of the materials has recently expanded beyond traditional applications to include exciting functions in the biomedical, diagnostic and catalytic arenas.

Targeting tumors using tiny gold particles  Researchers discover that developed tiny gold particles can home in on tumors, by absorbing energy from near-infrared light and emitting it. As the heat comes in contact with the tumors they are destroy with minimal side effects from the heat.  However, researchers say it’s difficult to heat patients tumors because they can damage human tissues so bad that it can cause them serious injury to them and can sometimes result in death. However, It been known that the heat is an effective weapon against tumor cells.

Future plans to treat cancer with gold nanorods  Scientist in the future are going to use cancer treatment using gold nanorods to treat breast cancer for women. Without induce any harm on the women and the remaining noncancerous parts of the body. The specific aims of this study is to identify whether gold nanorods have a negative impact on the apoptosis rate on negative breast cancer cells after irradiation and to determine the ideal concentration of gold nanorods obtaining the highest level of apoptosis in the negative breast cancer cells and to determine the ideal time of irradiation triggering the highest level of apoptosis.

Picture of how the gold nanorods are being worked in treatment

Science Concept  Physics- using materials using matter, energy, motion, and force.  Example: Gold nanorod Plasmon ruler possesses many advantages because its measurement sensitivity is homogeneous, it can operate in the near- infrared region because of it energy and the structure's size of the nanorod aspect ratio can be modified freely to get desired measurement range and sensitivity.

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