TAF PUBLISHING

Electrochemotherapy is a combined use of a chemotherapeutic drug and short intense electric field for cancer treatment. The applied electric field increases the permeability of the cell membrane thereby increasing the free entrance of the drug into the cancer cell for effective treatment at minimal drug dose. However, patients undergoing electrochemotherapy in clinical trial complain of unpleasant sensation due to muscle contraction during the pulse delivery (usually 1000V/cm, 100μs, and 8 numbers of pulses). This unpleasant sensation is caused because of the high amplitude of pulse or due to the low repetition frequency of the pulse (1Hz). Hence, in this paper, a low voltage amplitude (600V/cm) electric pulse at relatively higher pulse durations ranging from 500μs to 20ms was used in electroporating cells in vitro. The percentage of cell permeabilization and viability of the different pulse durations were measured. The result revealed that 500μs duration stimulates the cell proliferation and 20ms result in 90% of cell death. On the other hand 5ms pulse duration resulted in 65% permeabilization and 80% viability. Hence the study suggested that 600V/cm at 5ms duration can be used for electrochemotherapy to potentially eliminate the unpleasant sensation associated with high amplitude pulse.