CANCER CELL VIABILITY AND SURVIVAL IN VITRO AS FUNCTION OF CELL SURFACE ELECTRIC CHARGE: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY

Electrical charge is an indicator of the cellular state of health. In cells, the cell membrane is a leaky dielectric. Capacitors are composed of two conducting sheets separated by a thin layer of insulating material known as a dielectric. Cells contain several forms of biological capacitors, which consist of an insulating material (the membrane) covered on both sides by collection of charged dissolved minerals, which serve the function similar to a conducting metal plate. This means that any condition, illness or change in dietary intake that affects the composition of the cell membranes and their associated minerals can affect and alter cellular capacitance. Healthy cells have a higher whole cell and cytoplasm conductivity and higher membrane capacitance than the malignant cells. The electric charge of cell membranes of mammals is negative at physiological pH. It is well-known that surface of cancer and tumor cells carry negative charge in excess to that of normal cells which is responsible for their increased mobility and invasiveness. The high negative surface charge on malignant cells and trophoblasts may mediate the lack of immune rejection of these cells. Thus, neutralizing or removing the tumor cell negative charge may allow negatively charged lymphocytes to approach and destroy them and thereby, the viability and survival of the cancer cells may be affected at least in vitro. The present study serves to - test this hypothesis on invasive human breast carcinoma cell line MDA-MB-231 (ER ) using specially designed and constructed combination of circuits. Preliminary results showed that out of the 8 designed circuits, sets 1, 2 and 7 were able to produce significant growth inhibition of MDA cells in vitro. The application of electrostatic field through specially designed circuits is unique and has never been reported previously. Our long-term goal is to develop a minimally invasive device that will selectively target and destroy both metastatic and non-metastatic cancer cells in humans. Better understanding of effect of decreasing surface charge density of tumor cells may lead to device effective treatment strategy of human tumors in future.