Enhancement of drug electrotransfer by extracellular plasmid DNA

Electroporation is a widely established method for molecular delivery across electric field perturbed plasma membrane. It can be used as a non-viral DNA transfection method, or as a way to achieve small molecule delivery to or extraction from cells. We examined the possibility of combining the DNA delivery to the cells with small molecule transport across electroporated plasma membrane. The results show that the presence of DNA in electroporation medium increases the extraction of fluorescent dye calcein from calcein-AM loaded cells as well as the delivery of small-molecule drug bleomycin to the cells. We propose that these results may have implications in enhanced drug delivery using electroporation both in vivo and in clinics.