GOLD nanoparticles might one day help treat cancer by cutting off the blood supply to tumours, starving them of oxygen.
The growth of blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is an important step in tumour development, and blocking it has been a key goal of cancer researchers. Most existing angiogenesis inhibitors use antibodies to destroy vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a molecule that tells the cells forming the inner linings of blood vessels to divide.
While experimenting with gold particles about 5 nanometres wide, a team led by Debabrata Mukhopadhyay of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that they also blocked…
