Gold nanotubes can destroy cancer cells, according to physicists and medical researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds. They found that their nanotubes, which were tuned to have strong near-infrared absorption, can enter mesothelioma cells and destroy them when heated with laser light.
根據英國劍橋大學及利茲大學物理學家及醫學研究人員們的說法，金奈米管能摧毀癌細胞。他們發現，其經調整具有強大之近紅外線吸收作用的奈米管，當使用雷射光加熱時，能進入間皮瘤細胞中，並摧毀它們。
Every year, more than 2700 people in the UK are diagnosed with mesothelioma. This cancer usually grows in the pleural membrane, a thin lining that surrounds the lungs. The vast majority of cases are caused by exposure to asbestos dust.
每年，英國有2700多人被診斷罹患間皮瘤。這種癌腫通常於，圍繞肺部之薄襯裡的胸膜中成長。絕大多數病例，是曝露於石棉粉塵所引起。
When damaged, asbestos releases microscopic fibres that can be inhaled. These fibres can then migrate through lung tissue into the pleural membrane and cause mesothelioma to develop. Asbestos has been banned in the UK since the late 1990s, but mesothelioma can take from 15 to 60 years to develop.
當毀損時，石棉釋放出能被吸入的微小纖維。之後，此些纖維會透過肺臟組織遷移到胸膜，而導致形成間皮瘤。打從1990年代後期以來，石棉在英國一直被禁用。不過，間皮瘤的形成能花費15到60年。
“Mesothelioma is one of the ‘hard-to-treat’ cancers, and the best we can offer people with existing treatments is a few months of extra survival,” says Arsalan Azad at the University of Cambridge. “There’s an important unmet need for new, effective treatments.”
劍橋大學的Arsalan Azad宣稱：「間皮瘤是‘難以治療’的癌症之一。因此，使用現有療法能提供患者的最佳成效是，額外存活幾個月。就有效的新療法而言，有一項重要、未解決的需求。」
To develop a potential treatment, the researchers turned to gold nanotubes. They hypothesized that if absorbed by mesothelioma cells and then heated using near-infrared light, these hollow tubes – one thousandth the width of a human hair – would destroy the cancer cells.
為了開發一種潛在療法，此些研究人員求助於金奈米管。他們假設，倘若被間皮瘤細胞吸收，之後使用近紅外線光加熱，此些空心管子(千分之一人類頭髮的寬度)會摧毀這些癌細胞。
Tests in an aqueous solution showed that, when heated with a laser at a wavelength of 875 nm with a power density of 1.9 W/cm2, the nanotubes increased in temperature by up to 9°C, high enough to cause localized killing of cancer cells. Next, the team added the nanotubes to mesothelioma cell cultures and tracked them using various microscopy techniques, observing that the nanotubes were absorbed by the cells.
在水溶液中的諸多測試顯示，當使用一種波長875奈米(nm)、具有功率密度1.9 W / cm2的雷射加熱時，此些奈米管溫度升高，達到足以導致局部殺死癌細胞的9°C。之後，該團隊將此些奈米管添加到，間皮瘤細胞培養液中，並使用了各種顯微鏡技術，來進行觀察、追蹤被此些細胞吸收的奈米管。
The researchers then exposed mesothelioma cell cultures with and without the gold nanotubes to the near-infrared light for 10 min. Laser irradiation alone did not cause cell death, but laser exposure combined with the nanotubes killed roughly half of the cells. They report their results in Small.
然後，此些研究人員將具有及不具有，金奈米管的間皮瘤細胞培養液，曝露於近紅外線光達10分鐘。單獨進行雷射照射，並不會導致細胞死亡。不過，雷射曝光結合奈米管，大約殺死一半的此些細胞。他們在《Small》期刊，發表了他們的研究結果。
Key to the nanotubes’ potential to destroy cancers within the human body is their tunability. Stephen Evans, a physicist at the University of Leeds, says that there are two near-infrared windows in which light has good optical penetration through tissue. He explains that you need to tune the nanoparticles so that they best absorb – and convert to heat – light at those wavelengths.
此些奈米管摧毀人體內癌腫的潛力，是其可調整性。利茲大學的物理學家，Stephen Evans表示，在近紅外線有兩個區段，光具有良好之穿過組織的光學穿透性。他解釋，這需要調整此些奈米粒子，以便在那些波長，它們能最佳地吸收光，並轉變成熱。
The optical properties of gold nanomaterials are controlled by the density of free electrons that the light couples to and causes to oscillate, Evans explains. “That is dependent on the size, in our case, the thickness of the wall of the gold,” he says. “If we made thicker walled gold, we would shift the absorbance wavelength, and if we made the walls thinner, we would shift it in the opposite direction.”
Evans解釋，金奈米材料的光學屬性受控於，光耦合並導致振盪之自由電子的密度。他宣稱：「在其事例中，那取決於金粒子的大小及壁的厚度。倘若製作較厚壁的金粒子，他們將改變吸收的波長。倘若製作較薄壁的粒子，他們將以相反的方向改變。」
The nanotubes are created using a solution-based technique. First, a silver seed particle is grown into a silver nanowire, and then a gold salt is added to the water-based solution. The gold deposits onto the surface of the silver, which oxidizes and becomes water soluble. The silver then dissolves away leaving the gold nanotube.
此些奈米管是使用一種，以溶液為基礎之技術創造的。首先，使銀的種子粒子長成銀奈米線，然後將一種金鹽(金的離子化合物)添加到，以水為基礎的溶液中。金沉積於，氧化且變成水溶性之銀的表面上。之後銀溶解掉，餘留下金奈米管。
圖1. (a)以銀奈米線為模板製作金奈米管；(b)銀奈米線及(c)金奈米管的掃描電子顯微鏡技術(SEM：Scanning Electron Microscopy)圖像(插圖比例尺：200 奈米)；(d)金奈米管的透射電子顯微鏡技術(TEM：Transmission Electron Microscopy)圖像，深色邊緣顯示壁的厚度。
Evans tells Physics World that the thickness of the gold is tuned by controlling the size of the silver nanowires. In the study, the silver nanowires were around 100 nm in diameter, which led to a gold thickness of 12 nm.
Evans告訴Physics World，藉由控制銀奈米線的尺寸，來調整金粒子的厚度。在這項研究中，銀奈米線直徑大約100奈米，這導致12奈米的金粒子厚度。
The team also used nanowires with average diameters of 65 and 193 nm as templates to prepare gold nanotubes with thinner and thicker walls. “We showed that we could make silver nanowires of different diameters and thereby produce gold tubes with different wall thicknesses,” Evans says.
該團隊也使用了，具有平均直徑65及193奈米的奈米線作為模板，來製作具有較薄壁及較厚壁的金奈米管。Evans宣稱：「他們證實，能製作不同直徑的銀奈米線，從而生產具有不同壁厚度的金管子。」
Part of the attraction of using these gold nanoparticles to treat mesothelioma is that they have similar dimensions to asbestos fibres. The hope is that that they will also get trapped in the same part of the body, aiding the delivery of treatment. “We are sort of mimicking what causes the disease so we can use that as a treatment,” Evans explains.
使用此些金奈米粒子來治療間皮瘤，吸引人的部分是，它們具有與石棉纖維相似的尺寸。期盼的是，它們也會被陷於身體的相同部位，來協助治療的遞送。Evans解釋：「他們近似模仿導致此疾病的原因，因此能利用那作為一種療法。」
原文網址：https://physicsworld.com/a/gold-nanotubes-and-infrared-light-could-treat-asbestos-related-cancer/
翻譯：許東榮
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