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Special Issue "Immunogenic Effects of Electroporation-Based Treatments"

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A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 9616

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Emanuela Signori

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Guest Editor

National Research Council, Institute of Translational Pharmacology (CNR-IFT), 00133 Rome, Italy
Interests: oncoimmunology; gene electrotransfer; DNA immunization; electroporation; plasmid DNA; electrochemotherapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Maja Čemažar

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Guest Editor

Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, ZAloska 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: translational research of electroporation based technology; predominantly electroporation-based gene transfer and drug delivery; cancers; melanoma
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Mariangela De Robertis

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Guest Editor

Dept. of Biosciences, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari “A. Moro”, 70121 Bari, BA, Italy
Interests: gene electrotransfer; DNA immunization; electroporation

Prof. Loreé C. Heller

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Medical Engineering, University of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
Interests: gene therapy; pattern recognition; electroporation

Prof. Dr. Richard Heller

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Guest Editor

Department of Medical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA
Interests: DNA vaccines; gene electrotransfer; tumor immunology; drug delivery; device and protocol development; immunotherapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Studies in the field of immunology are revealing an attractive set of novel and different therapeutic approaches to treat cancer and infectious diseases. Electroporation, also named electropermeabilization (EP), is an efficient and safe technique based on the application of voltage pulses of sufficient strength and duration to generate transient membrane permeabilization/poration, thus allowing the delivery of drugs or genetic material into the target cells via electrotransfer. Past and recent results underline the capability of EP to influence the immune system response: following EP treatments, different innate and adaptive immune cells can be recruited, influencing immune responses at local and distant levels. Due to this property, many studies in the field of immunization by electroporation have been undertaken.

Intramuscular and skin gene electrotransfer (GET) represents a minimal invasive strategy to employ in immunotherapy and/or vaccination against infectious and cancer diseases, and to treat wound healing. Electrochemotherapy (ECT), irreversible electroporation (IRE), nano-pulse stimulation (NPS) and calcium electroporation (CaEP) are becoming more widely used in clinical protocols to treat different kinds of cancer with positive outcomes. Employment of nucleic acids for the development of new vaccines to deliver via electroporation is emerging as a new platform at the front line of the pandemic.

The aim of this Special Issue is to revive the success of a previous one, by pointing out the advancements in the field and eliciting a debate. Induction of immunological effects and enhancement of the immune system response induced by genetic vaccines and/or immunomodulatory molecules, administered alone or in combination with other therapeutic treatments by EP, will be discussed. Presentations of results on the immunological effects of drugs delivered by electric fields in pre-clinical and clinical trials will be very welcome as well.

The peer-reviewed papers (research articles or reviews) will provide a cross-section on the ongoing research in the field of electroporation applied to cancer and infectious diseases.

Prof. Emanuela Signori
Prof. Maja Čemažar
Prof. Mariangela De Robertis
Prof. Loreé C. Heller
Prof. Richard Heller
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

electroporation
vaccines
oncoimmunology

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 2031 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Immunogenic Cell Death in Electroporation-Based Therapies Depends on Pulse Waveform Characteristics

Tamara Polajžer

and

Damijan Miklavčič

Vaccines 2023, 11(6), 1036; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11061036 - 29 May 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 907

Abstract

Traditionally, electroporation-based therapies such as electrochemotherapy (ECT), gene electrotransfer (GET) and irreversible electroporation (IRE) are performed with different but typical pulse durations—100 microseconds and 1–50 milliseconds. However, recent in vitro studies have shown that ECT, GET and IRE can be achieved with virtually any pulse duration (millisecond, microsecond, nanosecond) and pulse type (monopolar, bipolar-HFIRE), although with different efficiency. In electroporation-based therapies, immune response activation can affect treatment outcome, and the possibility of controlling and predicting immune response could improve the treatment. In this study, we investigated if different pulse durations and pulse types cause different or similar activations of the immune system by assessing DAMP release (ATP, HMGB1, calreticulin). Results show that DAMP release can be different when different pulse durations and pulse types are used. Nanosecond pulses seems to be the most immunogenic, as they can induce the release of all three main DAMP molecules—ATP, HMGB1 and calreticulin. The least immunogenic seem to be millisecond pulses, as only ATP release was detected and even that assumingly occurs due to increased permeability of the cell membrane. Overall, it seems that DAMP release and immune response in electroporation-based therapies can be controlled though pulse duration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunogenic Effects of Electroporation-Based Treatments)

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10 pages, 1208 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Immunogenicity of COVID-eVax Delivered by Electroporation Is Moderately Impacted by Temperature and Molecular Isoforms

Gianfranco Battistuzzi

Antonella Conforti

Luigi Aurisicchio

and

Fabio Palombo

Vaccines 2023, 11(3), 678; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11030678 - 16 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 991

Abstract

DNA integrity is a key issue in gene therapy and genetic vaccine approaches based on plasmid DNA. In contrast to messenger RNA that requires a controlled cold chain for efficacy, DNA molecules are considered to be more stable. In this study, we challenged this concept by characterizing the immunological response induced by a plasmid DNA vaccine delivered using electroporation. As a model, we used COVID-eVax, a plasmid DNA-based vaccine that targets the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Increased nicked DNA was produced by using either an accelerated stability protocol or a lyophilization protocol. Surprisingly, the immune response induced in vivo was only minimally affected by the percentage of open circular DNA. This result suggests that plasmid DNA vaccines, such as COVID-eVax that have recently completed a phase I clinical trial, retain their efficacy upon storage at higher temperatures, and this feature may facilitate their use in low-/middle-income countries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunogenic Effects of Electroporation-Based Treatments)

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10 pages, 1223 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transcriptomic Analysis of the Acute Skeletal Muscle Effects after Intramuscular DNA Electroporation Reveals Inflammatory Signaling

and

Vaccines 2022, 10(12), 2037; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10122037 - 29 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1156

Abstract

Skeletal muscle is a promising tissue for therapeutic gene delivery because it is highly vascularized, accessible, and capable of synthesizing protein for therapies or vaccines. The application of electric pulses (electroporation) enhances plasmid DNA delivery and expression by increasing membrane permeability. Four hours after plasmid electroporation, we evaluated acute gene and protein expression changes in mouse skeletal muscle to identify regulated genes and genetic pathways. RNA sequencing followed by functional annotation was used to evaluate differentially expressed mRNAs. Our data highlighted immune signaling pathways that may influence the effectiveness of DNA electroporation. Cytokine and chemokine protein levels in muscle lysates revealed the upregulation of a subset of inflammatory proteins and confirmed the RNA sequencing analysis. Several regulated DNA-specific pattern recognition receptor mRNAs were also detected. Identifying unique molecular changes in the muscle will facilitate a better understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms and the development of safety biomarkers and novel strategies to improve skeletal muscle targeted gene therapy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunogenic Effects of Electroporation-Based Treatments)

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Review

Jump to: Research

18 pages, 1428 KiB

Open AccessReview

Advances of Electroporation-Related Therapies and the Synergy with Immunotherapy in Cancer Treatment

and

Vaccines 2022, 10(11), 1942; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111942 - 17 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1999

Abstract

Electroporation is the process of instantaneously increasing the permeability of a cell membrane under a pulsed electric field. Depending on the parameters of the electric pulses and the target cell electrophysiological characteristics, electroporation can be either reversible or irreversible. Reversible electroporation facilitates the delivery of functional genetic materials or drugs to target cells, inducing cell death by apoptosis, mitotic catastrophe, or pseudoapoptosis; irreversible electroporation is an ablative technology which directly ablates a large amount of tissue without causing harmful thermal effects; electrotherapy using an electric field can induce cell apoptosis without any aggressive invasion. Reversible and irreversible electroporation can also activate systemic antitumor immune response and enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy. In this review, we discuss recent progress related to electroporation, and summarize its latest applications. Further, we discuss the synergistic effects of electroporation-related therapies and immunotherapy. We also propose perspectives for further investigating electroporation and immunotherapy in cancer treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunogenic Effects of Electroporation-Based Treatments)

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22 pages, 1669 KiB

Open AccessReview

Clinical Applications and Immunological Aspects of Electroporation-Based Therapies

Jean Carlos dos Santos da Luz

Fernanda Antunes

Maria Alejandra Clavijo-Salomon

Emanuela Signori

Nayara Gusmão Tessarollo

and

Bryan E. Strauss

Vaccines 2021, 9(7), 727; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9070727 - 02 Jul 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3233

Abstract

Reversible electropermeabilization (RE) is an ultrastructural phenomenon that transiently increases the permeability of the cell membrane upon application of electrical pulses. The technique was described in 1972 by Neumann and Rosenheck and is currently used in a variety of applications, from medicine to food processing. In oncology, RE is applied for the intracellular transport of chemotherapeutic drugs as well as the delivery of genetic material in gene therapies and vaccinations. This review summarizes the physical changes of the membrane, the particularities of bleomycin, and the immunological aspects involved in electrochemotherapy and gene electrotransfer, two important EP-based cancer therapies in human and veterinary oncology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Immunogenic Effects of Electroporation-Based Treatments)

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