Gold In Medicine
The medicinal use of gold in the form of metal has been popular since ancient times. In the 19th century, this metal was used to treat anxiety, nervous disorders, depression, epilepsy, migraine, amenorrhea, impotence and alcoholism.
In fact, the gold element does not react with any of the chemicals in the body and is ineffective against them, and only its salts and isotopes have medicinal value. For example, stomach acid has no effect on gold.
Thin gold coatings are used to observe biological or biological samples and other non-conductive materials such as plastic and glass in the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). When gold is irradiated, it produces a lot of secondary electrons. Secondary electrons that have low energy are one of the signal sources of scanning electron microscope. The emission of these electrons is the result of charged particles such as electrons or ions hitting the metal surface in a vacuum tube.
Colloidal gold is used in the immunogold labeling or staining method (Immunogold labeling | IGS) in the electron microscope for rapid detection or immunoassay. By using this method, colloidal gold particles coated with special antibodies with the characteristic of surface absorption of protein molecules can explore the presence and position of antigens or antigens on the surfaces of cells. These particles can be seen with an electron microscope in highly sensitive findings in the form of dense dots where antigens are present.
In nuclear medicine of 198 Au isotope whose half-life is only 2.7 days for the treatment of some cancers use. Colloidal nanoparticles are used in cancer research to detect tumors using Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS).
Gold nanoparticles are used in drug delivery to optimize and improve the targeted biodistribution of drugs in organs, tissues or cells. Drug delivery includes unstable drug targets such as proteins, tumors, intracellular organelles, hard-to-reach locations such as the brain, retina, and drugs with serious side effects such as anticancer drugs.
