Science Behind Electroporation, Its Applications, And Explore Some Of The Companies Developing Treatments

Have you ever been shocked or electrocuted back to life? In December 1818, Andrew Ure claimed, “by stimulating the phrenic nerve with electric charges life could be restored in cases of suffocation, drowning, or hanging”. The medical advances accomplished throughout all the years has been truly amazing, from discovering blood cells, using human skin cells to create embryonic stem cells and many more.

Dower W, Miller J, Ragsdale C. 1988. High efficiency Transformation of E.coli by High Voltage Electroporation. Oxford Journals [Internet]. [1988 May 31, cited 2015 Dec 1] Available from: http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/13/6127.short

cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Radiation therapy is a treatment that uses high-energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells or keep them from growing. Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. Lastly targeted therapy, is the treatment that uses drugs and other substances to attack cancer cells. Some of these treatments are standard and others are being clinically tested in clinical trials. Patients may enter clinical trials before, during, or after starting their cancer treatment. Follow-up tests may be needed.

External Beam Therapy or (EBT) is a method for externally delivering radiation to a tumor. Beams are directed at a tumor and these high powered X-Rays can deliver radiation to the area of the tumor killing cancer cells but also healthy cells in that area as well. Although with careful planning doctors can spare the surrounding normal tissue keeping the minimal amount of healthy cells from dying around

Technology has advanced greatly in the last decade, everyday scientists are developing techniques to cure diseases. Millions of people die every year due to harmful diseases with no cure. The term virus holds a negative meaning to humans. However, scientists are now able to manipulate viruses in a beneficial way. The Talimogene Laherparepvec virus, which came from herpes, has been genetically modified in order to treat melanoma patients (Ledford, 2015).

Introduction Genetic transformation is known to be the conversion of a genotype into another with the addition of DNA from an external source. Frederick Griffith was the first person to use genetic transformation in 1928 with Streptococcus pneumoniae (Griffiths et al. 2000). There are three different methods that are used in genetic transformation to get the vector DNA into the nucleus of the competent cell. The methods are, projectile bombardment, electroporation, and heat shock. Heat shock is the most common method is projectile bombardment because it guarantees the mixture of the two DNA (APSnet…2014).

Electroconvulsive therapy is a form of treatment where small electric currents travel through the brain to intentionally induce seizures (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2017). This treatment is mostly used when illnesses have not been improved by other types of treatments like medication and other forms of therapy. For example, illnesses like severe depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, and sometimes post-traumatic stress disorder as well (National Institute of Mental Health, 2016). Since the procedure includes having electrode pads placed on the head to deliver levels of electric currents, it is essentially considered a “last resort” treatment because of its inhumanity. Electroconvulsive

Depending on the bacteria species, the manner in which transformation occurs varies. Haemophilus influenza is an example that utilises membrane-bound vesicles to capture double-stranded DNA 3. On the other hand, S. pneumoniae can uptake single-stranded DNA molecules after its cells express competency factors 3. Alternatively, scientists in laboratories transform cells, including ones that are not naturally competent, by inducing them to uptake DNA 3. These transformed cells are now known as competent cells for they have been rendered able to uptake DNA from the environment 18. This artificial transformation process is achieved by using a procedure called the heat shock method 18. This transforming method includes adding DNA to cells in the

In 2016 the FDA gave breakthrough status and approval, which will allow hundreds of patients to be treated

Immunotherapy is a great often overlooked benchmark to reveal just how high tech or advanced a specialized cancer center really is. It is important to point out that Envita has developed a phase I drug study about using the body 's own immune system to fight cancer- and have subsequently researched, studied, and adopted numerous immunotherapy techniques over the last 10 years. Immunotherapy remains a primary focus for Envita.

Electrolytes are electrically-charged ions that have neither a positive nor a negative charge. Some major electrolytes found in the body are sodium, potassium, calcium, and chloride. Electrolytes are important because cells such as the muscle, heart, and nerve cells use them to keep voltage going across the cell membrane and also to carry muscle contractions and other electrical impulses to other cells. During heavy exercise important electrolytes such as potassium and sodium are lost. Because of this many sports drinks, such as Gatorade, have extra electrolytes and carbohydrates added to them.

Radiofrequency ablation: This technique uses heat to destroy cancer cells. The physician guides a probe containing tiny electrodes through the skin into the tumor using imaging techniques, such as CT, MRI, or ultrasound. The heat generated by the electrodes destroys the cancer cells. Generally, only a local anesthetic is required for this procedure. In some cases, the physician may insert the probe through a cut in the abdomen using a laparoscope. This procedure requires general anesthesia.

During this lab, genetic transformation was looked at. Genetic transformation is the insert of foreign DNA into a host cell. Competent cells are cells that can take up genetic transformation through the vector, which is the transfer mechanism of a gene. In lab, the competent cell that was used was E. coli and the vector is pGLO. The method heat shock was used, which is the sudden changing of temperature that increases the absorption of the plasma membrane, making the cells then have to pick up the DNA from other medium. E coli was the first gene to be heat shocked and is known as a good heat shock protein, it was first uncovered in 1991. (Lai et al. 2014) Here, the bacteria E. coli is being transformed by the gene encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP).

Electrotherapy is a range of beauty treatments that use electrical currents passed through the skin to produce several therapeutic effects. In this report I have researched and written

Unlike Gilead that has only one product in its Oncology line, Bristol-Myers Squibb presently have four different drugs namely: Erbitux –an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antagonist for the treatment of Head & Neck cancer and Colorectal cancer,(2) Opdivo (nivolumab) for the treatment of unresectable or metastic melanoma and lungs cancer, (3) Syrcel( dasatinb) for the treatment of newly diagnosed adult with Philadelphia chromosome –positive (ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia and (4) Yervoy (ipilimumob) for the treatment of melanoma a type of skin cancer that spread and as such cannot be remove by surgery. Like Seattle Genetics, the company products use either Antibody-drug Conjugate (ADC) though in a different version by linking potent cytotoxic to monoclonal antibodies targeted to specific tumor cells or immune-oncology, an innovative technology that unlocks the body own immune system to fight against cancerous cells. It also expanded its focus to Nolch inhibitor (used in blocking powerful pathway that promotes tumor cell survival for certain other types of cancer. (Bristol-Myer Squibb, 2014) Because the technology is similar but used differently, BMS would be considered a close competitor who currently has the advantage of having four targeted specific drugs and 12 other oncology and immune-oncology in various trial phases.