Enhancing the Effect of Anticancer Drugs against the Colorectal Cancer Cell Line with Electroporation

Abstract

Electroporation was applied in vitro and in vivo in the treatment of human colorectal cancer cell lines to study whether it can enhance the effect of bleomycin (BLM), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and cis-platinum (CDDP). We used LS174T and Colo320 cells derived from human colon cancer as target cells in this study. When the LS174T cells were used as target cells, the IC₅₀ of BLM decreased to 10⁻³ times, while that of 5-FU decreased to only about one fifth with the application of electric current. In the case of the Co1o320 cells, the IC₅₀ of BLM and 5-FU were about one hundredth and a half, respectively. The effect of CDDP was not enhanced with electric current. In vivo experiments were also performed using LS174T cells transplanted subcutaneously (s.c.) into nude mice. By treatment with intravenously (i.v.) administrated BLM and simultaneous application of the electric current, tumors were markedly decreased in size after three weeks.