Every year, severe diarrhea caused by rotaviruses kill an estimated 870,000 children worldwide, but vaccines delivered by tiny gold particles could help combat this intestinal disease and save lives.
This contagious virus thrives in unsanitary environments. It causes infections leading to gastroenteritis and diarrhea in infants and children and is a particular problem in the Third World. Although oral vaccines exist, researchers continue to try to find more effective treatments.
According to a report in Gold News, published by the Gold Institute, lab tests on mice at the University of Massachusetts suggest that the most effective treatment for rotaviruses is a new vaccine delivered on the backs of tiny gold particles.
Lab mice infected with a rotavirus were treated with a portion of DNA cloned from the virus itself. Injection of this specifically encoded rotavirus DNA produces proteins that stimulate a natural immune response, improving the patient’s defence against the virus. The delivery system that proved the most efficient in these tests involves the injection of microscopic gold particles as carriers.
The inoculation procedure involves coating the inside of a plastic tube with gold beads about 0.95 microns in diameter (human hair is about 0.75 microns in diameter). The DNA segments are then passed over an absorbed by the gold particles. The plastic tubes are inserted into a gene gun, and the impregnated gold beads are injected into the bloodstream.
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