GOLDEN
MUSHROOM AND DRUG DELIVERY - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News: A gold-mushroom combo to ease drug delivery
What's
in the news?
● Medicines may soon have traces of ultramicroscopic gold powered by a super mushroom for greater efficacy.
Cor-AuNPs:
●
Cordy
gold nanoparticles (Cor-AuNPs), the outcome of a
collaborative experiment by scientists from four Indian institutions, has
earned an international patent from Germany.
● These nanoparticles, derived from the synthesis of the extracts of Cordyceps militaris and gold salts, could make drug delivery in the human body faster and safer.
Cordyceps Militaris:
●
Cordyceps militaris is a high value parasitic fungus, lab-grown
at the Department of Biotechnology’s Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) in
Bodoland University, one of the collaborators of the patented research work.
●
Penetration in the cells is more when the
drug particles are smaller.
●
Cordyceps militaris, called super mushroom because of its
tremendous medicinal properties, adds bioactive components to the synthesis of
gold nanoparticles for better penetration.
● Wild Cordyceps mushrooms are found in the eastern Himalayan belt.
Gold
salts:
● Gold salts are ionic chemical compounds of gold generally used in medicine.
Advantages:
●
Biosynthesised nanogold particles indicate
a new application of nanoparticles in the development
of therapeutic drugs which can be delivered as ointments, tablets,
capsules, and in other forms.
●
Gold nanoparticles are found to have greater solar radiation absorbing ability
than the conventional bulk gold, which makes them a better candidate for use in
the photovoltaic cell manufacturing industry.
●
Gold nanoparticles are capable of transferring various drugs made out of
peptides, proteins, plasmid DNAs, small interfering RNAs, and chemotherapeutic
agents to target diseased cells of the human body.
●
Gold nanoparticles are also found to be
useful in the electronics industry.