Virginia Researchers Plan to Use Electricity to Kill Cancer Cells

In a new report to be published in August in Technology and Cancer Research and Treatment, scientists in Virginia describe a novel electricity-based bioengineering therapy that will be tested to treat prostate cancer.

The research is overseen by Rafael V. Davalos, Director of interdisciplinary Bioelectromechanical Systems Laboratory at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences and Boris Rubinsky, professor of bioengineering at the University of California at Berkeley.

According to the press release from Virginia Tech, the team made use of electroporation (or electropermeabilization), a technique that essentially utilizes an electrical field to create large gaps or pores on the surface of cell membranes. Molecular biologists have been using this research technique for years to introduce genetic material into bacteria or yeast.

One aspect of this method is that, under control conditions, electroporation is reversible, that is, once the current is eliminated, the created pores close and the cell subsequently regains its normal structure and function. If excess electricity is applied, however, the gaps in the membrane will become permanent and the cell will become necrotic (die) or will undergo apoptosis (self-suicide). This latter process is called irreversible electroporation (IRE) and is the method that was implemented by the Bioengineering team to target cancer cells.

In their previous work reported in Transactions in Biomedical Engineering, a journal published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Davalos and colleagues successfully ablated (electrically eroded) targeted areas of liver tissue in lab animals. One advantage of this technique, as stressed by the researchers, was that no drugs were necessary and the anatomical integrity of the surrounding vascular network remained intact after the procedure.