Charla de Natasa Pavselj "Numerical Models of skin electroporation"

Se invita cordialmente a la charla que dara la Dra Natasa Pavselj, de la Universidad de Ljubljana (Eslovenia).

Titulo: Numerical Models of skin electroporation

Dia: Jueves 7/4

Hora: 14.30 hs

Aula 2, Pabellon I

Abstract

Electroporation or the use of electric pulses to increase cell membrane permeability is present in many molecular biology and medical applications. These include: electrochemotherapy, DNA transfection for DNA vaccination and gene therapy, transdermal drug delivery, cell fusion, tissue ablation. Electrochemotherapy is one of the most advanced and efficient biomedical applications of electroporation. It is a combination of chemotherapy and electric pulses aimed at temporarily permeabilizing tumor cell membranes to introduce drug molecules more efficiently into the cells. The results of clinical studies show a highly increased efficiency of bleomycin and cisplatin when used in combination with electric pulses. Another promising application of electroporation is gene electrotransfer into cells. It is a method using electric pulses to temporarily and reversibly permeabilize the cell membrane and to drive the DNA into the cell electrophoretically.

Numerous experiments have to be performed before a biomedical application is put to practical use in clinical environment. As a complementary work to in vitro, in vivo and medical experiments, we can use analytical and numerical models to represent, as realistically as possible, real biological phenomena of, in our case, electroporation. Two examples of numerical models of in vivo electroporation will be presented; a subcutaneous tumor during electrochemotherapy and skin during gene electrotransfer. To describe adequatly our in vivo observations, a tissue conductivity increase during electroporation, in other words a nonlinear dependence of conductivity on electric field was included in our numerical models.

With numerical models we can evaluate different electrical parameters in advance, such as pulse amplitude, duration, number of pulses, or different electrode geometries. Such models can contribute significantly to the understanding of an experiment and treatment planning as well as to the design of new electroporation devices and electrodes.

Pavšelj Nataša main publications

Pavšelj Nataša, Bregar Zvonko, Cukjati David, Batiuškaite Danute, Mir Lluis Maria, Miklavčič Damijan. The course of tissue permeabilization studied on a mathematical model of a subcutaneous tumor in small animals. IEEE trans. biomed. eng., Aug. 2005, vol. 52, no. 8, 1373-1381

Pavšelj Nataša, Préat Véronique. DNA electrotransfer into the skin using a combination of one high- and one low-voltage pulse. J. control. release. Sep. 2005, vol. 106, iss. 3, 407-415 Miklavčič Damijan, Čorović Selma, Pucihar Gorazd, Pavšelj Nataša. Importance of tumor coverage by sufficiently high local electric field for effective electrochemotherapy. Eur. j. cancer., Suppl. Nov. 2006, vol. 4, no. 11, 45-51

Pavšelj Nataša, Préat Véronique, Miklavčič Damijan. A numerical model of skin electropermeabilization based on in vivo experiments. Ann. biomed. eng., Dec. 2007, vol. 35, no. 12, 2138-2144

André Frank, Serša Gregor, Čemažar Maja, Pavšelj Nataša, Miklavčič Damijan. Efficiency of high- and low-voltage pulse combinations for gene electrotransfer in muscle, liver, tumor, and skin. Hum. gene ther., Nov. 2008, vol. 19, no. 11, 1261-1271

Pavšelj Nataša, Miklavčič Damijan. A numerical model of permeabilized skin with local transport regions. IEEE trans. biomed. eng., Jul. 2008, vol. 55, no. 7,1927-1930

Pavšelj Nataša, Miklavčič Damijan. Numerical models od skin electropermeabilization taking into account conductivity changes and the presence of local transport regions. IEEE trans. plasma sci, Aug. 2008, vol. 36, no. 4, 1650-1658

Pavšelj Nataša, Miklavčič Damijan. Numerical modeling in electroporation-based biomedical applications. Radiol. oncol. Sep. 2008, vol. 42, no. 3, 159-168

Daugimont L, Baron N, Vandermeulen G, Pavšelj N, Miklavčič D, Jullien MC, Cabodevila G, Mir LM, Préat V. Hollow microneedle arrays for intradermal drug delivery and DNA electroporation. J. Membrane Biol. 236: 117-125, 2010