Theoretical Model of Irreversible Intracellular Electroporation (Supra-Electroporation) in a Single Cell

Submicrosecond megavolt-per-meter pulsed electric fields drastically affect intracellular membranes and induce apoptosis. For this reason the fields are recently used as a purely electrical cancer therapy that kills tumors without hyperthermia or drugs. But as far as we know the operational characteristic of this method (amplitude-duration relationship) has never been calculated theoretically. We found that minimal amplitude of the pulsed external electric field inducing irreversible electrical breakdown (rupture) of organelle membrane is of the order of 10⁶ Vm^-1. The corresponding pulse duration is about 3times10² ns. As the pulse duration decreases, the pulse amplitude E increases. For pulse duration _~1 ns we obtained E_~110⁸ Vm^-1. The results of our investigation presented in the form of theoretical curves are in reasonable agreement with amplitudes and durations of pulsed electric fields used for treating solid tumors.