Oro nanométrico y vectorizado como potencial estrategia hacia el tratamiento de la artritis reumatoide

Gold nanoparticles have been used since ancient times for ornamental and healing purposes. In the last decades, its study has been promoted by the scientific community due to its unique physical, chemical and optical properties, dependent on size. Recently, this has constituted one of the biggest advances in applied nanotechnology in health. In pharmaceutical science, nanoparticles can be innovative tools for analysis, diagnosis and therapeutic procedures. Nowadays, nanoparticles are used as drug delivery devices in order to reduce either doses or adverse effects since they improve the biodistribution of drugs by making a modified and adapted release to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. This pathology of unknown origin is treated with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, such as methotrexate and tocilizumab, whose purpose is to slow down the process, which can even stop the evolution of the disease and prevent further damage to the disease affected areas. However, these drugs have high toxicity when they are used for long periods of time. As an alternative to current therapy, this work aims to study the potential improvement in treatment by encapsulating methotrexate in gold nanoparticles, as well as vectorizing them with tocilizumab.