The Good and the Bad of Cell Membrane Electroporation

Abstract

Electroporation is used to increase the permeability of the cell membrane through high-voltage electric pulses. Nowadays, it is widely used in different areas, such as medicine, biotechnology, and the food industry. Electroporation induces the formation of hydrophilic pores in the lipid bilayer of cell membranes, to allow the entry or exit of molecules that cannot otherwise cross this hydrophobic barrier. In this article, we critically review the basic principles of electroporation, along with the advantages and drawbacks of this method. We discuss the effects of electroporation on the key components of biological membranes, as well as the main applications of this procedure in medicine, such as electrochemotherapy, gene electrotransfer, and tissue ablation. Finally, we define the most relevant challenges of this romising area of research.

Development of a microfluidic cell transfection device into gene-edited CAR T cell manufacturing workflow

“…[46][47][48] However, the current platform of utilizing electroporation to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 editing molecules can be detrimental to T-cell fitness resulting in poor viability and expansion, in additional to causing possible chromosomal breakage. 49,50 Hence, alternative methods to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 editing molecules need to be explored.…”

Pearls and Pitfalls of Pulsed Field Ablation

“…The distinct mechanisms of electroporation on a cellular basis are not yet fully understood and might reveal new opportunities or better control in the future. 101) Additionally, it is unknown whether one or another IRE protocol or ablation system is superior to another and, different protocols of the systems hamper comparability, e.g., the results are not transferable. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the same protocol can be applied for different indications (e.g., in atria or the ventricles) or in how far and to which extent dose adaptations will be necessary for successful ablation while avoiding collateral damage.…”

Research update on cell membrane camouflaged nanoparticles for cancer therapy

“…A drawback of the sonication method is that the membrane-coating formed might be uniformity and the NPs may be polydisperse (Huang et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2020c;Jha et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2021). Electroporation, meanwhile, refers to the application of strong external electric-field pulses to cells and tissues to structurally rearrange cell membranes, causing multiple pores to form in these membranes (Balantič et al, 2021;Jha et al, 2021), through which the core NPs diffuse into cells. Though the purposes of transferring biological features from cell membranes to synthetic NPs for therapeutic cargos delivery have been achieved, a standardizable, batch-to-batch consistent, scalable, and high-throughput assembly method has not been well developed.…”