Membrane electroporation increases photodynamic effects

Electroporation of membranes is used widely for drug delivery. Photodynamic action consists of three main steps: (A) incorporation of the sensitizer through a membrane into cells; (B) photoxidation of cell constituents and (C) reoxidation of the reduced sensitizer by oxygen etc. The mechanisms of (B) and (C) have been studied widely in past decades. However, the mechanism of transport (A) of sensitizers to targets as the rate limiting step has not been studied to the same extent. Therefore we applied membrane and cell wall electroporation of human histiocytic lymphoma U937 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells in order to incorporate rapidly the reliable photodynamic agents thiopyronine, protoporphyrin, zinc phthalocyanine, copper phthalocyanine sulfonate, adriamycin and daunomysin, well-tried cytostatic agents. Depending on field strength and pulse width, 50–90% of cells become electroporated, then the dye diffuses rapidly into the cells, which reseal their membranes over a period of 6–10 min. Illumination for 10–15 min destroys all resealed cells faster than the same amount of unporated cells as in the case of the control (without pulse treatment) either by oxidation of cell components caused by excited dyes or singlet oxygen treatment. By this synergism of electroporation and photodynamic action at the same time, it is possible to kill all cells in a much shorter time than under usual conditions, e.g. in the control suspension. A combination of electrochemotherapeutic needle electrodes with a light conductor for a LASER connection will be effective for therapy.     

Transdermal iontophoresis of 5-fluorouracil combined with electroporation and laser treatment

The influence of iontophoresis and other physical enhancement methods such as electroporation and erbium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) laser on the skin permeation of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was examined. Iontophoresis increased the in vitro transdermal transport of both the anionic and non-ionic forms of 5-FU. A combination of electroporation pretreatment and subsequent iontophoresis resulted in a higher permeation of 5-FU than either technique alone. It appeared that electroporation treatment exerted a disruptive influence on the stratum corneum (SC). The SC layers in the skin were partly ablated by the laser, resulting in a great enhancement effect on the skin permeation of 5-FU. Application of iontophoresis further increased the drug permeation across laser-pretreated skin. The laser was consistently the most potent technique to enhance 5-FU delivery among the physical enhancement methods examined in this study.     

Electroporation-mediated delivery of molecules to model intestinal epithelia

This study was conducted to determine if electroporation can deliver membrane-impermeant molecules intracellularly to intact, physiologically competent monolayers that mimic the intestinal epithelium. In addition, the long-term effects of electroporation on these monolayers were studied to determine the kinetics with which monolayers recover barrier function. Caco-2 and T84 cells were electroporated as monolayers using calcein and fluorescein-labeled bovine serum albumin as marker molecules for measuring delivery into cells. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry were used, respectively, to visualize and quantify uptake of these molecules. Transepithelial resistance was used as a measure of physiologic barrier function. We found that intracellular uptake of calcein and bovine serum albumin occurred uniformly throughout both types of model epithelia and increased as a function of voltage, pulse length, and pulse number. There was no significant difference in uptake resulting from single and multiple pulses of the same total exposure time. We also observed that monolayers exposed to electroporation that induced uptake of up to 10⁶ molecules/cell were able to recover normal barrier function within one day. These findings suggest that electroporation may be useful for intracellular delivery into monolayers to study epithelial biology and, possibly, for drug delivery to intestinal epithelium.     

Development of murine embryos following electroporation

Purpose: The objective was to establish the parameters for reversible electroporation of murine embryos. Methods: In Trial 1, murine presumptive zygotes received an electrical pulse of 5, 10, or 20-s duration, and one of five voltages (100, 200, 250, 300, or 400 V). In Trial 2, embryo orientation within the electroporation chamber was evaluated with 250 or 400 V at a pulse period of 10 s. Results: Presumptive zygotes that received 400 V at each pulse length and zygotes exposed to 20 s at each voltage had the lowest embryonic development (P < 0.05). Presumptive zygotes that received 250 V had higher development compared to 400 V, irrespective of orientation (P < 0.01), but development was lower than the controls (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Electrical stimulation of presumptive zygotes can have a detrimental impact on early embryo development, but low amounts of stimulation may allow for potential gene transfer in transgenic experimentation.     

Enhancement of Transdermal Iontophoretic Delivery of a Liposomal Formulation of Colchicine by Electroporation

Iontophoresis of colchicine solution through electroporated skin showed maximum enhancement as compared to iontophoresis and electroporation alone. Encapsulation of colchicine in positively charged liposomes further augmented the delivery,with the amount of drug in the receptor after 24 h being 1348 342 mug/cm2 when iontophoresis was performed through electroporated skin as compared to 666 38mug/cm2 when it was performed through nonelectroporated skin and 41 18mug/cm2 when only electroporation was performed. The impedance of the skin was observed to drop sharply due to electroporation, with a postpulse recovery of about 30% over 24h. Also the total amount transported was compared to the total charge delivered in the case of each of the protocols. Hence this serves as initial evidence for potential of charged liposomes for the enhanced transdermal delivery of nonionized or neutral drugs using a combination of electroporation and iontophoresis.     

Influence of biological parameters and gene transfer technique on transformation of Fusarium oxysporum

Summary An improved method for PEG-mediated transformation of the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum was developed which led to at least a 10-fold increase in transformation frequency. This improvement was gained through the analysis of biological factors, viz., protoplast origin, plasmid modifications and protoplast/plasmid ratio. Elecroporation, a recently developed method for introducing DNA into many cell types, was successfully applied. It gave similar transformation efficiencies to those obtained with the chemical method, and thus appeared a valuable alternative. Qualitative features such as integration events were also analysed. Molecular analysis of transformants revealed that a single copy of plasmid DNA was preferentially integrated by electroporation. The respective advantages of the two DNA transfer methods are discussed.Abbreviations (CM) complete medium (Daboussi 1980) - (MM) minimal medium (Daboussi 1980) - (MS) 10 mM MOPS, pH 6.3, 1 M sorbitol - (MSC) MS with 10 mM CaCl₂ - (HS) 5 mM HEPES, pH 6.3, 20% sucrose - (PEG) polyethylene glycol - (FD) microfarad     

电脉冲疗法治疗恶性肿瘤的研究进展

肿瘤治疗方法主要有外科、化疗、放疗、免疫治疗及它们的联合使用。近20年来,电脉冲疗法因其抑瘤效率高、参数容易控制、无残余毒性等特点,受到国内外专家学者的广泛关注。     

铜绿假单胞菌噬菌体PaP3基因组电转化宿主菌的条件初探

目的:研究将铜绿假单胞菌噬菌体PaP3基因组DNA电转入其宿主菌并获得噬斑的基本条件。方法:以铜绿假单胞菌PA3作受体菌,将噬菌体PaP3基因组DNA通过电转化导入受体菌中,研究细胞生长状态、感受态细胞的制备方式、电场强度、DNA浓度和细胞密度等条件对转化效率的影响。结果:在含50μg/ml红霉素的LB培养液中培养宿主菌14~16 h,以100 mmol/L蔗糖溶液为介质,在25℃条件下制备感受态并使其浓度达到1011/ml,电转参数为12 kV/cm,300Ω,25μF,在此组条件下能获得较高的转化效率,最高可达2.1×103pfu/μg的DNA。结论:确定了一组电转条件,成功地将铜绿假单胞菌噬菌体完整基因组导入PA3中,并形成噬斑,为铜绿假单胞菌噬菌体的深入研究奠定了基础。     

利用电磁脉冲提高抗癌药物治疗肿瘤细胞疗效的实验研究

本文采用一种新的方法—电穿孔结合化学药物进行肿瘤治疗的电化学疗法。电穿孔由于能使细胞膜出现瞬时微孔,从而能大大提高癌细胞对药物的吸收率、促进了药物等大分子进入细胞。这里利用电穿孔现象结合抗癌药物治疗昆明小鼠身上的S-180肉瘤,从实验数据可看出,这种方法取得了很好的效果。这种癌症治疗新技术具有易于控制、便于操作等优点,特别适用浅表肿瘤的治疗,为临床治疗肿瘤提供了一条新的途径。