A mathematical model of drug dynamics in an electroporated tissue (Q2092236)

The model considered here concerns a spherical (i.e., disk-like) biological tissue to which an electric field is applied to open up the pores of cell membranes to facilitate the entrance of a drug into the cells contained in the tissue. The phenomenon is called electroporation. Depending on the strength of the voltage pulse, one distinguishes between reversible electroporation, i.e., lower voltage with subsequent membrane resealing, desirable in normal drug administration, and irreversible electroporation, i.e., higher voltage resulting in permanently open pores, a case desirable in chemotherapy with the aim of killing the pertinent cells. The state of the system modelling the drug uptake is described by differential equations for the temporal development of the drug concentrations \(C_E\) in extracellular space and \(C_{RE}\), \(C_{IRE}\) inside the cells, for the reversible and the irreversible case, resp. Numerical results show excellent coincidence with analytical results achieved for special values of space coordinates. As it turns out, a minimum of about 100\,V/cm is required to initiate electroporation. The graphical plots deal with varied values of the drug permeability \(P\), the electric field \(E\), and the duration \(t_{ep}\) of the electroporation. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is carried out.