Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Decrystallization

We present a platform technology, called Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Decrystallization (MAMAD), which is based on the use of dispersion of gold colloids with low power microwave heating to decrystallize organic and biological crystals attached to surfaces. Uric acid crystals were chosen as model target crystals to be decrystallized using MAMAD technique. A two-step procedure was employed: 1) growth of uric acid crystals on a model surface (collagen films coated on to glass slides to simulate a human joint) at room temperature and 2) de-crystallization of uric acid crystals in synovial fluid (in vitro) using silver and gold colloids in conjunction with low power microwave heating. Using the MAMAD technique with gold colloids, the number of uric acid crystals was drastically reduced by 80% after 10 min, where the average size of the uric acid crystals was reduced from 125 μm to 50 μm. In control experiments and with silver colloids that aggregated from the solution, the size and number of uric crystals remained unchanged, indicating that the combined use of only metal colloids in solution and microwave heating is effective for the de-crystallization of uric acid crystals in biological media.