Anti-proliferation control of breast cancer cells using electric pulses

Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) involves application of pulses of strong electric field ranging from 1.2 kV/cm to 300 kV/cm or more with ultra-short time durations of up to 10 ns, for enhanced delivery of typically impermeable molecules, such as chemo drugs, genes and vaccines in the medical field. The objective of our work is to observe the efficacy of the potent and unique anticancer drug, cisplatin along with PEF on the anti-proliferation of MCF-7, human cancer cells. The cells were treated with cisplatin of different concentrations alongside PEF of 1008 V and 1280 V amplitude and a pulse width of 20 microseconds (μs). Our results show significant reduction in cell viability when cells are treated with the combination of PEF and cisplatin compared to drug alone or pulses alone. The highest percentage decrease of viable cancer cells was found to be 34 for 1280 V at a low drug concentration of 31.2 μg/ml.