Abstract
Electroporation is a physical method to increase permeabilization of cell membrane by electrical pulses. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can potentially act like “lighting rods” or exhibit direct physical force on cell membrane under alternating electromagnetic fields thus reducing the required field strength. A cell poration/ablation system was built for exploring these effects of CNTs in which two-electrode sets were constructed and two perpendicular electric fields could be generated sequentially. By applying this system to breast cancer cells in the presence of multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs), the effective pulse amplitude was reduced to 50 V/cm (main field)/15 V/cm (alignment field) at the optimized pulse frequency (5 Hz) of 500 pulses. Under these conditions instant cell membrane permeabilization was increased to 38.62%, 2.77-fold higher than that without CNTs. Moreover, we also observed irreversible electroporation occurred under these conditions, such that only 39.23% of the cells were viable 24 h post treatment, in contrast to 87.01% cell viability without presence of CNTs. These results indicate that CNT-enhanced electroporation has the potential for tumour cell ablation by significantly lower electric fields than that in conventional electroporation therapy thus avoiding potential risks associated with the use of high intensity electric pulses.
Highlights
Electric fields have a range of effects on cells and tissues
Upon circuit test, calibration of the system and measurement of the signal outputs, the main and alignment pulses (EM and EA, respectively) at a maximum field strength of 60 and 30 V/cm was achieved. We considered that these voltages would be sufficient for the required electric field intensity for the multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs)-assisted cell membrane permeabilization
Optimized pulse parameters were investigated in our custom-designed perpendicular electric field system to evaluate the MWCNT-enhanced electroporation of cancer cells in vitro
Summary
Electric fields have a range of effects on cells and tissues. Low intensity The potential dual effects, i.e., the local field enhancing and physical disrupting ability, of CNTs on cell membrane under alternating electromagnetic fields prompted us to explore the use of low intensity electrical pulses to permeablize cell membrane or even ablate cancer cells in the presence of CNTs. Reversible cell membrane permeabilization, in which electroporated membrane reseals after electrical pulse application and most cells recover from the treatment and remain viable, has been extensively researched for its potential in nucleic acid transfection, gene and drug delivery and etc., and has been applied clinically for cancer treatment [21,22]. The observed effects by CNTs may have potential applications in irreversible electroporation for tumour ablation or in combination with cytotoxic drug for electrochemotherapy by low intensity electrical fields
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