Therapeutic strategies for controlling the metastasis and recurrence of cancers: contribution of drug delivery technologies

Pulse width and intensity effects of pulsed electric fields on cancerous and normal skin cells

Microsecond pulsed electric fields (PEF) have previously been used for various tumour therapies, such as gene therapy, electrochemotherapy and irreversible electroporation (IRE), due to its demonstrated ability. However, recently nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEF) have also been used as a potential tumor therapy via inducing cell apoptosis or immunogenic cell death to prevent recurrence and metastasis by interacting with intracellular organelles. A large proportion of the existing in-vitro studies of nsPEF on cells also suggests cell necrosis and swelling/blebbing can be induced, but the replicability and potential for other effects on cells suggesting a complicated process which requires further investigation. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of pulse width and intensity of nsPEF on the murine melanoma cells (B16) and normal murine fibroblast cells (L929) through electromagnetic simulation and in-vitro experiments. Through examining the evolution patterns of potential difference and electric fields on the intracellular compartments, the simulation has shown a differential effect of nsPEF on normal and cancerous skin cells, which explains well the results observed in the reported experiments. In addition, the modelling has provided a clear evidence that a few hundreds of ns PEF may have caused a mixed mode of effects, i.e. a 'cocktail effect', including cell electroporation and IRE due to an over their threshold voltage induced on the plasma membrane, as well as cell apoptosis and other biological effects caused by its interaction with the intracellular compartments. The in-vitro experiments in the pulse range of the hundreds of nanoseconds showed a possible differential cytotoxicity threshold of electric field intensity between B16 cells and L929 cells.

Effect of CD16a, the surface receptor of Kupffer cells, on the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cells

FcγRIIIa (CD16) is a low-affinity Fc receptor of IgG. As the idio-binding receptor of IgG Fc, it plays an important role in the antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity of natural killer cells. The aim of the present study was to investigate the distribution of Kupffer cells (KCs) and the expression of their surface receptor FcγRIIIa in hepatocellular carcinoma. Furthermore, we also aimed to observe the functional mechanism of FcγRIIIa. Immunohistochemical analysis was employed to study KCs and FcγRIIIa. In order to explore the role of FcγRIIIa in the growth of cancer cells, KCs and H22 tumor cells were co-cultured in different serum. The mRNA expression levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and FcγRIIIa were analyzed by RT-qPCR; the TNF-α and FcγRIIIa protein expression levels were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and western blot analysis, respectively. Our results showed that the number of Kuppfer cells in cancerous tissues (21.6±7.8) was lower than those in para-cancerous (68.8±9.1) tissues and adjacent normal hepatic tissues (62.0±1.9) (P<0.01); this decreased with the reduction in the differentiation degree of cancer (P<0.05). FcγRIIIa-positive cells were similar in morphology to KCs, and their distributive tendency was coincident (P<0.05). The increase in CD16a mRNA levels in the group treated with immune serum was 3.9-, 4.9- and 3.9-fold greater than that in the ordinary serum group at different time points, and CD16a protein expression also markedly increased (P<0.05). However, these effects were inhibited by the addition of anti-IgG Fc serum (P<0.05). The results of the present study suggested that FcγRIIIa resided in KCs, and it contributed to the inhibition of the growth of liver tumor cells.