Electric-field-induced electroporation and permeation of reactive oxygen species across a skin membrane

Abstract

Electroporation processes affect the permeability of cell membranes, which can be utilized for the delivery of plasma species in cancer therapy. By means of computational dynamics, many aspects of membrane electroporation have been unveiled at the atomic level for lipid membranes. Herein, a molecular dynamics simulation study was performed on native and oxidized membrane systems with transversal electric fields. The simulation result shows that the applied electric field mainly affects the membrane properties so that electroporation takes place and these pores are lined by hydrophilic headgroups of the lipid components. The calculated hydrophobic thickness, lateral diffusion and pair correlation revealed the role of 5α-CH in creation of water-pore in an oxidized membrane. Additionally, the permeability of reactive oxygen species was examined through these electroporated systems. The permeability study suggested that water pores in the membrane facilitate the penetration of these species across the membrane to the interior of the cell. These findings may have significance in experimental applications in vivo as once the reactive oxygen species reaches the interior of the cell, they may cause oxidative stress and induce apoptosis.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• Molecular dynamics simulation
• electroporation
• cancer therapy
• reactive oxygen species
• electric field

Acknowledgements

The authors are also thankful to the Gachon Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and the Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Gachon University of Medicine and Science, Incheon, Korea, for providing the computational modelling facility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

DKY conceived and designed the project and collected data from the literature and databases. SK and DKY performed the experiments, analysed the data, and wrote the manuscript. EHC and MHK provided the facility. All authors contributed to the interpretation and discussion of the results. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Author DKY is thankful to the Basic Science Research Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, which supported this study [No. 2017R1C1B2003380]. This research was also partially supported by the Leading Foreign Research Institute Recruitment Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean government (MSIP) [NRF-2016K1A4A3914113].