Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)

Nanotechnology is a term that encompasses the set of sciences and techniques that are applied at atomic, molecular and macromolecular scale. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have several applications, especially in the medical and food bio-sector. AuNPs can be produced in different sizes and shapes and can be easily functionalized with a wide range of ligands.

One of the areas of my interest is in medicine, specifically when they act as phytotherapeutic agents. In the presence of laser light the AuNPs activate and release heat, being very useful in the selective treatment of tumor cells.

They are also used for the transport and selective vectorization of therapeutic drugs and macromolecules, as well as in gene therapy (transport of plasmids, DNA, RNA, etc.) which is important for the career I am studying.

The technological progress is very important to improve complicated aspects of drugs, as the means of transport to make effective its therapeutic action.

I learned about this subject for a job here at university and I loved the projection of nanotechnology. As you investigate a topic, problems arise such as the possible toxicity that AuNPs can cause because they can easily cross biological barriers. The results of the scant work on toxicity of the in vivo AuNPs published to date demonstrate that cytotoxicity is strongly determined by particle size. For these reasons it is necessary to develop a greater number of studies on the toxic effects of AuNPs, in order to establish safe conditions for their use in the different fields of application.