Systems and methods of using pulsed electric fields to spatially control cell death mechanisms that modulate the immune response
AssigneeVirginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.
InventorsRafael V. Davalos, Kenneth N. Aycock, Nastaran Alinezhadbalalami, Irving Coy Allen
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Abstract
The present invention provides systems and methods for treatment planning and/or administering electrical pulses that elicit desired cell death mechanisms. Embodiments of the invention include selection of pulse parameters to tailor cell death type.
Claims33
A method of treating tissue with electrical pulses comprising:
- administering one or more or a plurality of electrical pulses to cells of a target tissue according to a pulsing protocol expected to achieve a desired cell death gradient based on one or more cell death mechanism chosen from apoptosis, pyroptosis and/or necroptosis.
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The method of claim 6, wherein:
- pulse width is reduced to increase the volume of tissue experiencing regulated cell death (RCD), such as apoptosis and/or pyroptosis;
- and/or
- pulse repetition rate is increased to elicit a larger volume of necroptosis;
- wherein the pulse width reduction or the pulse repetition increase is performed before, during and/or after the applying of the electrical pulses.
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A treatment planning system for determining a patient-specific electroporation-based treatment protocol comprising:
- a processing module operably configured for performing the following stages:
- receiving and processing information from medical images of a target tissue and preparing a reconstruction model of the target tissue;
- and
- using the model of the target tissue, constructing one or more protocols each providing parameters for electroporating the target tissue to achieve a desired cell death gradient based on one or more cell death mechanism chosen from apoptosis, pyroptosis and/or necroptosis;
- and
- a processor for executing the stages of the processing module.
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A method of treating tissue comprising:
- administering one or more electrical pulses to a first spatial region of a tissue by way of a first electrode configuration in a manner to achieve apoptosis, pyroptosis and/or necroptosis in a first desired/predetermined cell death volume and/or apoptosis, pyroptosis and/or necroptosis and a first immune system response thereto;
- and
- administering one or more electrical pulses to a second spatial region of the tissue by way of a second electrode configuration in a manner to achieve apoptosis, pyroptosis and/or necroptosis in a second desired/predetermined cell death volume different from the first volume and/or apoptosis, pyroptosis and/or necroptosis and a second immune system response different from the first immune response.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.