Simulation of nanoparticle based enhancement of cellular electroporation for biomedical applications

Abstract

Introduction of nanoparticles can modify electrical properties such as the permittivity and conductivity of a medium. This model based study focuses on such modulated changes of an extracellular medium from the standpoint of enhancing electroporation to achieve more efficient delivery into biological cells. A finite element, time-dependent axisymmetric bio-model, coupled with the Smoluchowski equation, has been used to evaluate the transmembrane potentials and evolution of pore densities. Our simulation results show that a relatively small fraction of gold nanoparticles in the extracellular medium effectively enhances the transmembrane potentials, leads to much higher pore densities, and shifts the pore distribution towards larger radii. This collectively bodes well for enhancing drug delivery or gene transfection in cells.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 11, 2014
Source ID
10.1063/1.4901248

Entities

People

  • Aswini Pradhan
  • Hao Qiu
  • Ravindra P. Joshi

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Norfolk State University
  • Old Dominion University

Tags

Readers

  • Oncology (Cancer Research).
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Underwater engineering and Marine Technology.

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biotechnology - Cancer Biotech