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1000-word Report on the Medical and Industrial Uses of Gold
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- University Of Surrey (UNIS)
A 1000-word essay detailing some medical and industrial uses of gold, inluding figures and references.
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The Medical and Industrial Uses of Gold:Gold is one of the world’s most sought-after precious metals, with approximately 4,000
tonnes of it in demand in 2021 (World Gold Council, 2022), owing to its useful properties
such as its high electrical and heat conductivity, resistance to corrosion, biocompatibility, and
ductility. From gold therapy in arthritic patients to bonding wires in electric circuits, gold is
used in many different industries; one of the most notable being within the medical
profession.
Gold in Medicine
Gold has been chronicled as a useful material in medicine for centuries, with records dating
back to the 5th Century B.C. in which it was documented as being used as wires for treating
jaw fractures (Higby, 1982). Although it can be seen throughout history, it wasn’t until the
19th century, when research into gold nanotechnology and nanoparticle synthesis picked up,
that gold became a vital material within medicine.
Gold nanoparticles are small gold particles with a diameter of 1 to 100nm. They are also
known as colloidal gold when suspended in water (Chen, Li, Wang, 2014). This colloidal
gold was the discovery of Michael Faraday in the mid-1850s, who found that the gold in
water had certain optical properties in scattering light that gave it a red colour, as opposed to
the yellow we often associate with gold (The Royal Institution, no date). Colloidal gold has
now become a key component of various treatments and therapies for diseases due to it being
more biocompatible than other types of nanoparticles (Subramani, Ahmed, 2018).
Michael Faraday’s Gold Colloid Sample (Wilkinson, 2020).
, One of the first modern, and most well-known, uses of gold in medicine was to help patients
suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is ‘an inflammatory
autoimmune disease that typically attacks the connective tissue of the joints, causing them to
become painful, inflamed, and sometimes deformed’ (Harvard Health Publishing, 2011). In
1928, rheumatologist Jacques Forestier started treating his patients who had RA with gold
compounds, known as gold salts, which had anti-inflammatory properties (World Neurosurg,
2021). Forestier found that gold therapy eased pain in RA patients, publishing the following
data and stating that “the very good cases and good cases number 33- or 70 per cent., and this
percentage can be considered as a definite advance in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis”
(Forestier, 1932).
Table showing negative to very good results from gold salts treatment on RA
patients (Forestier, 1932).
However, there were some harmful side effects including kidney damage and liver toxicity.
As research into RA evolved, better treatments were found, and gold therapy was used very
minimally (Eustice, 2020). Gold, however, has not disappeared as a useful material in
medicine.
One branch of the medical industry that makes use of colloidal gold is oncology. Gold
nanoparticles are widely used in cancer treatments and diagnostics, owing to their capability
for targeting specific tumour cells as opposed to chemotherapy drugs, which are harmful to
all cells they come into contact with, even healthy ones (The World of Nanoscience, no date).
Recent research has explored combining colloidal gold nanoparticles with anti-cancer
therapeutics to make treatment more targeted. One of these combinations is tumour necrosis
factor (TNF) protein with colloidal gold nanoparticles. TNF has previously been examined as
a cancer treatment singularly, and although it was effective in tumour regression, it had
detrimental side effects, in some cases causing organ failure (Subramani, Ahmed, 2018). This
was mainly due to the protein not being able to differentiate between healthy and malignant
cells. Nevertheless, it has been found that once conjugated with colloidal gold, the treatment
becomes more tumour-specific, meaning there were fewer adverse effects (Powell, Paciotti,
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