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 microwaveheating to decrystallize organic and biological crystals attached to surfaces. Uric acid crystals werechosen as model target crystals to be decrystallized using MAMAD technique. A two-step procedurewas employed: 1) growth of uric acid crystals on a model surface (collagen films coated on to glassslides to simulate a human joint) at room temperature and 2) de-crystallization of uric acid crystalsin synovial fluid (in vitro) using silver and gold colloids in conjunction with low power microwaveheating. Using the MAMAD technique with gold colloids, the number of uric acid crystals wasdrastically reduced by 80% after 10 min, where the average size of the uric acid crystals was reducedfrom 125 μm to 50 μm. In control experiments and with silver colloids that aggregated from thesolution, the size and number of uric crystals remained unchanged, indicating that the combined useof only metal colloids in solution and microwave heating is effective for the de-crystallization of uricacid crystals in biological media.