Electrophoresis-assisted accumulation of conductive nanoparticles for the enhancement of cell electropermeabilization

The use of conductive nanoparticles (NPs) was previously proposed as a way to locally amplify the electric field (EF) intensity at the cell membrane to enhance cell electroporation. To achieve this, a close distance between the NPs and the cell membrane is mandatory. Here, a new method to improve th...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ghorbel, Amina, André, Franck M., Mir, Lluis M., García Sánchez, Tomás
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/46246
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46246
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bioelechem.2020.107642
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Gold nanoparticles
Local electric field
Pulsed electric fields
Electroporation
Description
Summary:The use of conductive nanoparticles (NPs) was previously proposed as a way to locally amplify the electric field (EF) intensity at the cell membrane to enhance cell electroporation. To achieve this, a close distance between the NPs and the cell membrane is mandatory. Here, a new method to improve the contact between NPs and cell surface using the effects of electric pulses (electrophoretic forces) is explored. The effects of two types of electric pulses are analyzed alone or combined in a two-pulse-train protocol on Chinese hamster DC-3F cells. Particularly we used 100 µs duration pulses, low intensity-millisecond pulses and combinations of both. Finally, we studied the use of surface coated NPs (PEGylated) for this application. Our results demonstrate that the delivery of an electric field prior to the electroporation pulses increases the accumulation of NPs around the cell membrane suggesting that NPs are pushed towards the cell surface through electrophoretic forces. This allowed reducing the need for long incubations between cells and NPs to observe an enhancement of electroporation mediated by conductive NPs. Thus low intensity-millisecond pulses can be used to increase the accumulation of either aggregated or individual (i.e. PEGylated) NPs supporting the electrophoretic nature of the observed effects.