PhD Chemistry Student Uses Gold to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis and The Results are Promising

I’ve previously discussed how some heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and aluminum, may enter the body through our diet, and the great ways on how to rid these specific toxins from the system.

But there’s one metal scientists from the University of Wollongong, Australia, deem is actually really good for you – especially if you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.

In fact, this metal not only has a long history of being on every woman’s wish-list for Christmas, but also as an effective medical treatment to multiple diseases.

This Miracle Metal is Gold.

The study of using gold for medicinal purposes began in 1935 and by the late 1900’s studies of the medical application rocketed when it proved effective in treating Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

These studied showed gold compounds have the ability to reduce inflammation and could be used as disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, a type of inflammatory arthritis.

This autoimmune disease is caused when the immune system wrongly attacks the body’s tissues, creating joint pain and swelling.

Gold compounds prove effective against this disease and placing it in DMARDs, which are known to prevent joint damage and disability, gold is able to actually slow the process of rheumatoid arthritis.

In the 90’s, however, the use of gold to treat this disease slowly decreased due to the many risks the metal had on patients.

Now, the scientists at Wollongong have discovered a way to use gold to treat rheumatoid arthritis with little side effects through the use of nanoparticles.

What’s so Great About Gold Nanoparticles?

PhD chemistry student, Lloyd James, fronted the research that has since been published in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, where he and other researchers discovered that by reducing gold to 50 nanometers (1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair!), treatment was much more effective.

“We found that gold nanoparticles were taken up by more cells and in greater quantities than the traditional gold drugs, but without any toxicity which is often associated with negative side effects in clinical therapy,” Lloyd said.

“Effectively, our study found gold nanoparticles didn’t kill immune cells. While cell death is something that you look for, for example in cancer therapies, when it comes to rheumatoid arthritis, cell death can be associated with negative side effects.”

Why Gold Didn’t Work for Arthritis the First Time

Gold was first introduced as a treatment to this autoimmune disease through intramuscular gold salts. This was injected directly into the muscles of a patient almost every week during the first stages of treatment.

To make matters worse, positive effects only occurred after the first 4-6 months.

The side effects of gold were plenty and caused almost 35% of patients to cease treatment. They included rash, kidney damage, ulcerations of the mouth, blood in the urine, and an irreversible skin discoloration.

An inflammation of the mucous membranes that line the digestive track, known as mucositis, was also suffered by patients and up to 10% of patients had mild proteinuria, a condition where the kidney holds above average levels of protein.

The Promise of Nanoparticles for Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

More research is still required when it comes to gold nanoparticles, but Lloyd is hopeful that they could be the answer to treating rheumatoid arthritis.

“It’s very much a possibility that gold nanoparticles could become a potential treatment for rheumatoid arthritis,” Lloyd said, adding that it may be given orally in the future.

The studies done at the University at Wollongong show that more gold nanoparticles are able to be absorb in high quantity by cells, which could be the key to why it works so well.

However, the precise cause and effect is still unknown. An exact size and dosage is still being researched to help in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis to cause the least amount of toxic side effects as possible.

The Potential of Metals in Biochemistry

Metals are seen more often in medicines than people believe.

The bismuth compound is most commonly used in Pepto-Bismol, helping ease stomach problems, and colloidal silver has been used as an antiseptic. Cisplatin, a platinum drug, has been a real achievement for chemotherapy and is used in most testicular cancer cases. Its success story is so great cisplatin is often compared to a lot of other drugs.

“The metals make up a very large component of the periodic table, so I feel as if there is a lot of untapped potential there for their capacity for biological work,” Lloyd says.

Unlocking the potentials of using metals as medical treatments could open up new, non-toxic treatments for several diseases.

And while we still highly recommend these great natural remedies to help treat rheumatoid arthritis, the idea of using gold nanoparticles is interesting and might be able to benefit the estimated 52.5 million adults in the US suffering from some form of arthritis.