Systemic Electroporation – Combining Electric Pulses with Bioactive Agents

Abstract

In the year 2007, the documentation of the first functionally effective electrotransfer of naked DNA by electroporation, with stable gene expression, is 25 years old. This first functional electro-uptake has been preceded, in 1972, by the first documentation of controlled electrorelease of cellular components from bovine medullar chromaffin granules. - In the meantime, the electroporation field pulse techniques combined with the application of bioactive agents, have culminated in the new clinical disciplines of electrochemotherapy and electrogenetherapy. There are continuously ongoing efforts to improve the pulse protocols by optimizing equipment and cell biological strategies, relying heavily on the increasing knowledge on molecular-mechanistic details derived from the various electroporation data. - The digression here is restricted to a survey-like appreciation of the early functional electroporation data and their thermodynamic and mechanistic interpretation. We briefly touch the potential to explore systemic electroporation for the treatments of tissue, in particular, tumors. The goal is to provide tools in order to optimize systemic electroporation protocols and the design of electrode arrays for clinical use.