Molly Stevens and her team of researchers at Royal College London published an astonishing study in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. According to them, gold nanoparticles could detect infections such as HIV, and certain cancers, such as, for example, that of prostate.
The screening test is very simple: just place a few gold particles on a disposable plastic base and then submit the patient’s blood to this system, in order to analyze the serum. The result is visible to the naked eye: if the patient has biological markers of cancer or HIV, the solution turns blue. Conversely, if the patient is healthy, the solution turns red. In addition to being easy to perform, the test is therefore very inexpensive because it does not require specific equipment.
Another major advantage is that this process would allow the early stages of cancer or infection to be detected much earlier, where current methods fail. However, it does not indicate the stage of development of the disease.
Thus, this technique could be of interest to NGOs as well as to emerging countries. The researchers are currently in contact with certain NGOs in order to set up a large-scale clinical trial to verify the effectiveness of the test.