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Electrochemotherapy and Gene Electrotransfer in Veterinary Oncology

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Handbook of Electroporation

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Abstract

Veterinary medicine has become an important translational bridge from in vitro and preclinical studies to human medicine, offering invaluable model for research in naturally occurring diseases and therefore providing vital data which cannot be gained from strictly experimental animal models. This is especially true for investigating novel approaches to cancer treatment. Electrochemotherapy and gene electrotransfer are two such novel treatment options in both human and veterinary clinical oncology. Current research shows that electrochemotherapy has excellent local ablative effect on treated tumors. However, its major drawback lies in its inability for any type of systemic antitumor effect. Therefore, one possibility to boost its effect is combining electrochemotherapy with systemic immunomodulatory effects of interleukin-12 (IL-12) gene electrotransfer, since both use the same platform technology, electroporation. In veterinary medicine, the combined treatment was successfully used in different types of tumors in dogs and horses, providing excellent local antitumor control with indications of systemic effects of such treatments, clinically seen as prolongation of treated patients’ lifespan, distant effect on untreated tumors, lymph node metastases, and regression of invasive tumor growth. Furthermore, immunologic studies show that this type of treatment causes systemic induction of patient’s immune response as seen from flow cytometry of treated patients’ blood showing temporary increase of circulating cluster of differentiation 8 positive (CD8+) cells after each therapeutic session. With use of IL-12-based gene therapy, several important safety aspects should be observed, mainly possible IL-12 toxicity and environmental safety of this type of therapy, regarding possible shedding of antibiotic resistance genes into environmental bacteria.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Veterinary Faculty, Small Animal Clinic, University of Ljubljana, Cesta v Mestni log 47, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Darja Pavlin & Nataša Tozon

  2. Department of Experimental Oncology, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Zaloška cesta 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Maja Čemažar & Gregor Serša

  3. Toulouse Veterinary School, University of Toulouse, 23 Chemin des Capelles, Toulouse, France

    Youssef Tamzali

Authors
  1. Darja Pavlin
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  2. Maja Čemažar
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  3. Gregor Serša
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  4. Youssef Tamzali
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  5. Nataša Tozon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darja Pavlin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electrical Enginer, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Damijan Miklavcic

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Experimental Oncology, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Zaloškacesta 2, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Gregor Serša

  2. Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics, Old Dominion University, 4211 Monarch Way, Suite 300, VA 23508, Norfolk, Virginia, USA

    Richard Heller

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Pavlin, D., Čemažar, M., Serša, G., Tamzali, Y., Tozon, N. (2016). Electrochemotherapy and Gene Electrotransfer in Veterinary Oncology. In: Miklavcic, D. (eds) Handbook of Electroporation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26779-1_108-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26779-1_108-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26779-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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