uOttawa research suggests spray of tiny particles of gold may treat heart disease
Posted on Tuesday, March 15, 2022
By David McFadden
Research Writer
Could a spritz of super-tiny particles of gold and peptides on a damaged heart potentially provide minimally invasive, on-the-spot repair?
Cutting-edge research led by uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Associate Professors Dr. Emilio Alarcon and Dr. Erik Suuronen suggests a spray-on technology using customized nanoparticles of one of the world’s most precious metals offers tremendous therapeutic potential and could eventually help save many lives. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, claiming roughly 18 million lives each year.
In a paper recently published online in ACS Nano, a peer-reviewed journal that highlighted the new research on its supplementary cover, Dr. Alarcon and his team of fellow investigators suggest that this approach might one day be used in conjunction with coronary artery bypass surgeries. That’s the most common type of heart surgery.
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The therapy tested by the researchers used very low concentrations of peptide-modified particles of gold created in the laboratory. From the nozzle of a miniaturized spraying apparatus, the material can be evenly painted on the surface of a heart within a few seconds.