Projects / Programmes
New biomedical applications of electroporation
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 3.04.00 |
Medical sciences |
Oncology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| B520 |
Biomedical sciences |
General pathology, pathological anatomy |
| B200 |
Biomedical sciences |
Cytology, oncology, cancerology |
electroporation, electrochemotherapy, electrogenetherapy, tumors malignant, patients, tumors experimental
Researchers (13)
Organisations (1)
| no. |
Code |
Research organisation |
City |
Registration number |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
0302 |
Institute of Oncology Ljubljana |
Ljubljana |
5055733000 |
15,468 |
Abstract
Electroporation is a physical method that induces increased permeability of the cell membrane. Application of short intense DC electric pulses destabilizes the cell membrane, which enables faciliteted delivery of varios molecules, that have hampered transport through the cell membrane. Electroporation has proved to be effective for delivery of drugs, monoclonal antibodies and DNA. Lately, electroporation was used also for in vivo delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs and DNA into the tumors. The first approach was termed electrochemotherapy, the second electrogenetherapy. Our research group has been extensively involved in this research field for several years. Electrochemotherapy with cisplatin and bleomycin has proved to be effective in controling tumor growth locally in experimenatl tumor models in mice, as well as in treatment of various tumors in patients. Therefore, in this researh proposal it is foreseen to continue with the clinical study of electrochemotherapy with cisplatin or bleomycin on recurrent tumors of malignant melanoma, breast cancer, head and neck tumors and basal cell carcinoma of the skin. Besides cytotoxic effect, cisplatin and bleomycin have also radiosenzibilizing effect. In this project we will test electroporation as drug delivery for cisplatin and bleomycin in order to potentiate the radiation response of the experimental tumors in mice. Besides certain chemotherapeutic drugs, transfection of tumor cells with certain genes can facilitate the radioresponse of the tumors. Therefore we will test electroporation for p53 gene transfection, optimize the procedure, and determine antitumor effectivenss in combination with ionizing radiation. The concept of the project is to further develop electrochemotherapy in treatment of malignant tumors in humans, as well as to introduce electroporation into the radiation oncology as an method for delivery of radiosensitizing drugs or radiosensitizing genes.
