Requirements for a clinical electrochemotherapy device - electroporator

electroporato

Elektroporator za permeabilizacijo celičnih membran in vitro

The use of high voltage electric pulse technology, electroporation, in cell biology, biotechnology and medicine has attracted an enormous interest. Electroporation is a transient phenomenon that increases the permeability of cell plasma membrane. In the state of high permeability, the plasma membrane allows small and large molecules to be introduced into the cytoplasm, althoughthe cell plasma membrane represents a considerable barrier for them inits normal state. The effectiveness of electroporation depends on many parameters that can be divided into the parameters of the electric field and the parameters that define the state of cells and their surrounding i.e, temperature, osmotic pressure, etc. In this article, we present a prototype electroporator GT-1 for in vitro electropermeabilization that we have developed. Our electroporator offers a vast flexibility of parameters and can generate high and low voltage pulses, of which the latter ones are used for electrophoretic transfer of charged molecules through permeabilized cell plasma membrane

Ultra‐broadband and high‐dynamic‐range THz time‐domain spectroscopy system based on organic crystal emitter and detector in transmission and reflection geometry

The terahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum reveals important insights when studying material properties. An ultra-broadband terahertz time-domain spectroscopy system based on state-of-the-art, high-stability organic nonlinear optical crystals used as both THz wave generator and detector is presented. In transmission geometry, a broad spectrum exceeding 20 THz and a high dynamic range of more than 80 dB is achieved using a compact 100 MHz femtosecond laser working at telecom wavelength 1560 nm. In the normal-incidence reflection geometry, a similar bandwidth with a dynamic range surpassing 60 dB is reported. The experimental results are supported by a complete theoretical model, which includes the pump pulse duration, THz phonon/vibrational modes of the organic crystals and optical/THz beam path optimizations. The effectiveness of the newly developed system is demonstrated by measuring pharmaceutical samples with distinct THz features in the ultra-broadband THz range and by measuring narrow water vapor lines at a spectral resolution of 2.7 GHz (0.090 cm−1), resulting in an excellent accuracy with a frequency deviation of less than 0.05% from the reference values

Age-associated B cells predict impaired humoral immunity after COVID-19 vaccination in patients receiving immune checkpoint blockade

Age-associated B cells (ABC) accumulate with age and in individuals with different immunological disorders, including cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade and those with inborn errors of immunity. Here, we investigate whether ABCs from different conditions are similar and how they impact the longitudinal level of the COVID-19 vaccine response. Single-cell RNA sequencing indicates that ABCs with distinct aetiologies have common transcriptional profiles and can be categorised according to their expression of immune genes, such as the autoimmune regulator (AIRE). Furthermore, higher baseline ABC frequency correlates with decreased levels of antigen-specific memory B cells and reduced neutralising capacity against SARS-CoV-2. ABCs express high levels of the inhibitory FcγRIIB receptor and are distinctive in their ability to bind immune complexes, which could contribute to diminish vaccine responses either directly, or indirectly via enhanced clearance of immune complexed-antigen. Expansion of ABCs may, therefore, serve as a biomarker identifying individuals at risk of suboptimal responses to vaccination

Amplification of Signals Generated by a Programmable Function Generator

Exposure of a biological cell to an electric field can produce a variety of responses [1]-[6]. If the field strength exceeds a certain threshold value, this leads to a large transient increase in membrane conductivity and permeability for ions and molecules (electropermeabilization, often also named electroporation) or to fusion of adjacent cells (electrofusion) [5], [6]. Nowadays, these phenomena are widely used in applications such as gene transfection [7]-[8], preparation of monoclonal antibodies [9], and drug delivery, especially in electrochemotherapy of tumors [10]-[12]. For optimal effectiveness of these applications, one must choose the most appropriate amplitude, duration, and waveform of the applied electric pulses. With 2 mm distance between plate electrodes, which is an established setup for electropermeabilization in vitro, the threshold voltages typically range from 120 to 300 V [13], with pulse durations from several microseconds to several milliseconds [5]. Due to these demands, electropermeabilization is performed using specialized devices, often referred to as electroporators or electropulsators. Today

Radiol Oncol 2001; 35(3): 203-7. Electroporator for in vitro cell permeabilization

The use of high voltage electric pulse technology, electroporation, in cell biology, biotechnology and medicine has attracted an enormous interest. Electroporation is a transient phenomenon that increases the permeability of cell plasma membrane. In the state of high permeability, the plasma membrane allows small and large molecules to be introduced into the cytoplasm, although the cell plasma membrane represents a considerable barrier for them in its normal state. The effectiveness of electroporation depends on many parameters that can be divided into the parameters of the electric field and the parameters that define the state of cells and their surrounding, i.e. temperature, osmotic pressure, etc. In this article, we present a prototype electroporator GT-1 for in vitro electropermeabilization that we have developed. Our electroporator offers a vast flexibility of parameters and can generate high and low voltage pulses, of which the latter ones are used for electrophoretic transfer of charged molecules through permeabilized cell plasma membrane. Key words: electroporation- instrumentation- methods; cell membrane permeabilizatio

Prediction of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Characteristics from User Interactions

Content-based recommender (CBR) systems take advantage of item characteristics and user propensities for these characteristics in order to select the items that are better suited for a user. Related work has shown that the characteristics of hedonia (pleasure) and eudaimonia (deeper meaning) account for user preferences in the domain of movies. However, labeling items with hedonic/eudaimonic properties and measuring user propensity for eudaimonic/hedonic experiences could be done only through questionnaires. In this work we present the results of our work-in-progress on the prediction of user propensities for eudaimonic and hedonic experiences from a movie preferences dataset. Our results indicate that a range of classifiers that use ratings of movies as features perform substantially better than the average baseline