A golden bullet? Selective targeting of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites using antibody-functionalized gold nanorods

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A friend of mine in Australia speaks very highly of this Cortie who has been trying for years to help her (she has one of "our kind" of conditions).I'll be interested to see if anything comes of it. It sure would be neat to be able to zap parasites in this targeted fashion.NellyFull text at http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/nalefd/2007/7/i12/pdf/nl072377+.pdf Nano Lett. 2007 Dec;7(12):3808-12. Epub 2007 Nov 23. LinksA golden bullet? Selective targeting of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites using antibody-functionalized gold nanorods.Pissuwan D, Valenzuela SM, CM, Cortie MB.Institute for Nanoscale Technology, Department of Medical and Molecular Biosciences, Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.Conjugates of gold nanoparticles and antibodies have useful functionalities. Here, we show how they can be used to selectively target and destroy parasitic protozoans. Gold nanorods were conjugated with an anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibody and used to target the extracellular tachyzoite which is an infectious form of an obligate parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Subsequent laser irradiation was used to kill the targeted protozoans. This concept provides a new paradigm for the treatment of parasitic protozoans.PMID: 18034505 [PubMed - in process]