Chemists at the University of North Carolina have discovered that adding tiny pieces of gold to weakened anti-AIDS drugs resumes its ability to fight the virus's penetration into the immune system, while New York State scientists have created a substance much stronger and harder than traditional iron that retains Even under the influence of high temperatures. This opens the door to a world of various potential applications, for example, in engine components that are subject to heavy loads and high temperatures.

The addition of gold nanoparticles to a modified version of drugs created in 1990 to fight AIDS - but rejected due to harmful side effects - allows the creation of a substance that does not allow the virus to remain in cells, according to Dr. Christian Melander, assistant professor of chemistry in the state of New York, York.

The drug component, named TAK-779, originally detected the property of attaching to a specific location in human T cells, which blocked the entry of the AIDS virus into the immune system. Unfortunately, the proportion of the drug molecule making it possible to attach had harmful side effects. When this portion of the molecule-ammonium salt-was removed, the drug lost its ability to attach. It was then that scientists turned to gold for help. This element has no reaction in the human body and is ideal as a platform for attachment of drug molecules in the absence of ammonium salt, which will keep the drug molecules and increase their effect. The theory received real confirmation. Thus, scientists managed to open a harmless way to restore the effectiveness of an important drug, and now a similar theory can be applied to other existing drugs.

Iron, consisting of nanocrystals, is much stronger and stronger than the traditional equivalent, but the advantages of such nano-iron are limited by the fact that its nanocrystalline structure breaks down at relatively moderate temperatures. Still, scientists in the state of New York managed to develop an iron-zirconium alloy that retains its nanocrystalline structure at temperatures above 1,300 degrees Celsius - close to the melting point of iron.

The new alloy is economically viable, t. To produce an alloy costs as much as to create a nano-iron.

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