Towards an optimal dose-response relationship in electroporation-based tumor treatments

E LUJAN; MARSHALL, GUILLERMO; OLAIZ, NAHUEL; MARINO, M.

Norfolk

Congreso; 2nd World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields in Biology, Medicine, and Food & Environmental Technologies; 2017

Electroporation (EP) based tumor treatments are well established and widely employed. Although a large experience was gained in planning methodology of EP based protocols, still there is a room for further improvements. This requires the finding of the dose-response relationship leading to optimal treatments. The quest for reliable dose and response parameters implies obtaining the electroporated volume and the unwanted tissue damage due to the unavoidable electrolytic process. Here, 1) a theoretical model of EP based protocols is introduced in which damage is obtained through a model in which tissue is seen as an ionic circuit and the underlying electrochemical reactions described by the Nernst-Planck equations for ion transport; the electroporated area is obtained through a model in which tissue is seen as an electronic circuit and the electric field described by the nonlinear Laplace equation. 2) In general, an optimal EP based protocol is predicted as the critical Coulomb dose yielding a maximum electroporated volume with minimum damage. 3) While in EP based protocols, such as in Electrochemotherapy (ECT) and Irreversible EP (IRE), unwanted damage due to electrolysis is negligible, in Gene Electrotransfer (GET) damage is non-negligible and enough to denature plasmids.