Toward Hijacking Bioelectricity in Cancer to Develop New Bioelectronic Medicine

Bioelectronic medicine is a treatment modality that uses electricity to treat disease by altering the body's electrical communication systems. All cells are electrically active, in that they possess bioelectric circuitry generating a resting membrane potential and endogenous electric fields that influence cell functions and communication. There is now an accepted paradigm that cancer is characterized by malfunctions in cells' bioelectrical circuitry. This yields opportunities for bioelectronic medicine as novel treatments for cancer by manipulating its bioelectrical properties. To highlight the possibilities a bioelectrical approach can offer cancer therapy, the relevance of bioelectrical activity in cancer is reviewed and also how such activity can be hijacked in novel treatments. This includes sensing or measuring the electrical activity of cells for diagnostic and prognostic applications, controlling or altering bioelectricity including both ionic and faradaic current processes, and eliciting morphological changes using electric fields. Importantly, key links between cellular ionic and faradaic processes that contribute to cancer phenotypes are presented, which if considered and understood as a whole, can bring broad-reaching improvements to cancer therapy.

Automated summary

Bioelectronic medicine is a treatment modality that alters the body's electrical communication systems using electricity. Cancer is identified by malfunctions in cells' bioelectrical circuitry, presenting opportunities for novel treatments utilizing bioelectric properties. By manipulating bioelectricity, such as controlling ionic and faradaic current processes, and understanding key links to cancer phenotypes, improvements in cancer therapy can be achieved.