Common Ingredient in Big Macs and Sodas Can Stabilize Gold Nanoparticles for Medical Use

The future of cancer detection and treatment may be in gold nanoparticles – tiny pieces of gold so small they cannot be seen by the naked eye. The potential of gold nanoparticles has been hindered by the difficulty of making them in a stable, nontoxic form that can be injected into a patient. New research at the University of Missouri-Columbia has found that a plant extract can be used to overcome this problem, creating a new type of gold nanoparticle that is stable and nontoxic and can be administered orally or injected.