In biomedical research and the practice of cancer therapy, gold nanoparticles have been used to visualize malignant tumors, as the heated bodies for hyperthermia of cancer cells, as drug carriers to deliver drugs to a cancer cell, but, to the best of our knowledge, they have not yet been used consciously as the sources of terahertz (THz) radiation delivered to a cancer cell that contributes to the inhibition of cell activity. It is predicted here that gold nanoparticles less than 8 nm in size are sources of spontaneous THz radiation, and the possibility of their application in oncology is due to the known effects of THz radiation on the cells of living organisms. There are indications that nanoparticles with a size comparable to the width of the major groove of the DNA molecule will be the most effective. Another effect that has not yet been taken into account in biomedical studies using gold nanoparticles is that of local electric fields due to the contact potential difference above edges and vertices of gold nanoclusters. The prerequisites and possibilities for searching for the manifestations of these two effects when gold nanoparticles are introduced into living cells of organisms are considered.
Article Commentary on "Microdosimetric and radiobiological effects of gold nanoparticles at therapeutic radiation energies" [T.M. Gray et al., IJRB 2023, 99(2), 308-317]
本文评论指出 Gray 等人研究中 Monte Carlo 模拟与放射生物学实验结果相互矛盾，且剂量增强预测不合理，并探讨了可能原因。
Comment on "Investigation of the anisotropic distribution of microdosimetric quantities in the vicinity of X-ray-irradiated gold nanoparticles" by Derrien et al. [Radiation Physics and Chemistry 213, 111232 (2023)]
Near-infrared photothermal response of plasmonic gold-coated nanoparticles in tissues
我们提出了一种新的方法来了解金-硅核-壳纳米粒子注射到鸡组织在近红外激光照射下的时间依赖性升温过程。金纳米壳强烈吸收近红外辐射，并有效地将吸收的能量转化为热量。实验结果与基于生物传热的数值计算结果吻合较好。我们的工作改进了最近一项研究的分析[Richardson等人，Nano Lett. 9，1139（2009）]通过包括培养基灌注对温度升高的影响。理论分析也可用于估计纳米粒子在实验样品中的分布，并为新系统的温度分布提供相对准确的预测。这种方法将提供一种新颖的和可靠的工具，加快光热研究和设计国家的最先进的光热设备。
