Gold has a long history as a therapeutic agent, first as
gold particles and
colloidal gold, then as a soluble
salt made by the alchemists, and potable
gold was recommended almost as a panacea against different diseases.
Gold compounds were introduced in the treatment of
tuberculosis, based initially on the reputation of Robert Koch, who found
gold cyanide effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in cultures. Although several investigations of
gold salts showed no convincing effect in experimental
tuberculosis in guinea pigs, the idea of using
gold compounds as
chemotherapy was furthermore encouraged from the work of Paul Ehrlich with
arsenicals. The enthusiasm and the craving desperately for a remedy for
tuberculosis forced Danish physicians, in the mid-1920s to treat
tuberculosis with Sanocrysin (
gold sodium thiosulfate). Professor Holger Møllgaard, in collaboration with the clinicians the professors Knud Secher and Knud Faber, was the theoretical promoter of the project. He recommended sanocrysin-antiserum
therapy, since sanocrysin caused serious reactions in
tuberculosis animals, possible by releasing toxins from tubercle bacilli "killed" by sanocrysin. However the enthusiastic response to sanocrysin in Europe declined along by controlled trials and reports on toxicity in the 1930s. The belief that
rheumatoid arthritis was a form of
tuberculosis caused a renaissance in chrysotherapy. In France Jacques Forestier obtained encouraging results in the treatment of
rheumatoid arthritis with
myochrysine and other
gold salts, and he pointed out the disease modifying effect of chrysotherapy. In Denmark Knud Secher, who was the clinical initiator of Sanocrysin
therapy in
tuberculosis, now became the founder of chrysotherapy in
rheumatoid arthritis. Although new potential agents are now taking over in the treatment of
arthritis, it is still believed, that there is a place for the chrysotherapy. However a new future for
gold, in the form of nanoparticles, appears on the horizon, especially in the imaging, diagnostics and
therapies of
cancer.