Gold Standard?

 I've written before about nanotechnology using gold particles to kill cancer cells (see my post titled "There's Gold in Them Thar Tumors"), but researchers from Northwestern are using gold in a completely different way, to kill lymphoma cells in particular..

B cell lymphomas (like Follicular NHL) take up HDL cholesterol to meet their fat needs. HDL is the "good" kind, and there is some evidence that HDL levels go down as lymphoma tumor burdens go up. (There havebeen some discussions among people in my support group about this, though mine is usually pretty good during my annual physical.)

The researchers at Northwestern  are taking advantage of this. They use a particle with gold at its core.  The particle resembles natural HDL closely enough that lymphoma cells happily take it in. And that's when it does its double job: it blocks real HDL from getting to the cell, and the gold actually draws cholesterol from the lymphoma cells. It doesn't kill the cell directly, but it does help to starve it by depriving it of its favorite food.

Of course, we're pretty early in the process with this one. But it does sound promising, and the many web sites reporting on it are pushing the "no chemotherapy" angle, which is also great. I could see this as an addition to current therapies, since it might weaken lymphoma cells as they are being attacked by other treatments. Or perhaps it will be a kind of maintenance therapy?

Who knows. Like so many other treatments, it will be fun to follow its progress.