CAIRO - Famous Egyptian nanoscientist Dr Moustafa el-Sayyed recently announced the success of the second phase of research (NRC) being undertaken by a team at the National Research Centre. Under his supervision, the team have been using nanogold to treat cancer. In the second phase, the team injected guinea pigs suffering from cancer with nanogold, and it didn't harm the animals' healthy cells. Dr el-Sayyed also stressed that gold particles don't cause diseases such as diabetes, while the impact of these particles disappears from the affected organ, shortly after the injection. During a press conference held at the National Research Centre, Dr el-Sayyed said that no-one is sure when this gold particle therapy will be ready for use on humans, as there is still research to be done, but he expected it might be ready in a year or 18 months. Of course, this new treatment must also get the approval of Egypt's Ministry of Health. He stressed that gold particles can treat all kinds of cancer, as long as it only targets the affected cells. These tiny gold particles can easily be detected under the microscope, because they have noticeable light-scattering properties. The nanoparticles can also absorb light and convert this energy into heat that allows for the selective destruction of cancerous cells without harming healthy cells. Dr el-Sayyed stressed that nanogold therapy will not be expensive, as 1,000 patients with cancer can be treated with only one gram of gold. The head of the NRC, Dr Ashraf Shaalan, noted there are two teams working in nanogold research: one is studying the use of gold participles, while the other team is using lasers with nanogold. He added that the research is being financed by a charitable institution called Misr el-Khair. Dr Shaalan added that there are several other co-operation projects using nanotechnology in the field of solar energy and water desalination.
