BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRIC PULSES WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON ANTITUMOR ELECTROCHEMOTHERAPY

Short and intense electric pulses (EP) are regularly used in almost all molecular and cellular biology laboratories to introduce foreign DNA, as well as other exogeneous molecules, into living cells. Besides these in vitro applications, some in vivo applications have recently emerged. Biomedical application of EP is thus a new interdisciplinary field at the frontier of physics, chemistry and biology. This article intends to give an informative background and an overview of several presentations from the XIIth Symposium on Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics that dealt with this subject, as well as from the two round tables organized by the authors(1). Two procedures have already entered clinical trials: the electroinsertion of CD4 molecules on red blood cell membranes, which uses EP delivered ex vivo, and antitumor electrochemotherapy, which uses EP delivered in vivo. An overview of current research on the latter is given in more detail.