Abstract:
Lateral diffusion of membrane components (lipids and proteins) is an important membrane
property to measure since the essential process of absorption of anti-cancer and other drugs
-some of which are not soluble in lipids and therefore would not be able to penetrate the cell
membrane through passive diffusion- lies on it. In particular, the procedure of diffusion into
the cell cytoplasm is reliant on free volumes in the membrane (passive diffusion) as well as
carrier proteins (facilitated diffusion). By enhancing the mobility of lipids and/or proteins,
the possibility of the carrier protein to "encapsulate" pharmacological components maxim-
izes, as a "scanning" of the proteins gets performed due to the fluid phase of a biological
membrane. At the same time, the increased mobility of the lipids facilitates the passage of
lipid-soluble molecules into the cell. Thus, given that the success of anticancer treatments
heavily depends on their absorption by the cell, a significant enhancement of the cell mem-
brane permeability (permeabilisation) is rendered vital to the applicability of the technique.
For this reason, there is augmented interest in combined methods such as Nanotechnology
based drug delivery that is focused on the development of optimally designed therapeutic
agents along with the application of shock waves to enhance the membrane permeability
to the agents. This study examines the impact of shock waves on a numerical model of a
biological membrane. Cont/d.
