Nanoelectropulse intracellular perturbation and electropermeabilization technology: phospholipid translocation, calcium bursts, chromatin rearrangement, cardiomyocyte activation, and tumor cell sensitivity.

Nanosecond, megavolt-per-meter pulsed electric fields scramble the asymmetric arrangement of phospholipids in the plasma membrane, release intracellular calcium, trigger cardiomyocyte activity, and induce apoptosis in mammalian cancer cells, without the permeabilizing effects associated with longer, lower-field pulses. Dose dependencies with respect to pulse width, amplitude, and repetition rate, and total pulse count are observed for all of these phenomena. Sensitivities vary among cell types; cells of lymphoid origin growing in suspension are more susceptible to nanoelectropulse exposure than solid tumor lines. Simple electrical models of the cell are useful for first-order explanations, but more sophisticated treatments will be required for analysis and prediction at both biomolecular and tissue levels.