Australasian Science Magazine

Swinburne University researchers have reported that gold nanorods can be used to inhibit cancer cell growth in cervical cancer.

Dr Chiara Paviolo from Swinburne’s Centre for Micro-Photonics was able to stop cancer cell proliferation by attaching tiny gold particles to the cell receptors in immortal HeLa cells – the first human cell line ever cloned.

“Cell receptors send growth signals to the cell by binding with an external molecule called a growth factor and then clustering together,” Paviolo said. Growth factors are normally used to stimulate the growth of cells and are involved in 20% of cancers.

“By placing growth factors at the ends of 100 nm gold nanorods we could prevent the clustering of the receptors at a defined distance and thereby shut off the growth signal,” she said.

“The simple explanation is that receptors need to cluster together to send a signal, but if you keep them apart it stops them from signalling.”

The research has been published in the nanotechnology journal Small.