AccScience Publishing / EJMO / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/EJMO026160176
Submit to EJMO
Cite this article
1
Download
13
Views
Related Info Links
Google Scholar
More by Authors Links
Biliana Nikolova
Journal Browser
Volume | Year
Issue
Search
Forthcoming Issue
Current Issue
View All
News and Announcements
View All
MINI-REVIEW

Electro-assisted delivery of quantum dots: Current advances and perspectives in cancer theranostics

Iana Tsoneva1 ,  Severina Semkova1 ,  Biliana Nikolova1*
Show Less
1 Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev Str., Bl. 21, Sofia , Bulgaria
EJMO, 026160176 https://doi.org/10.36922/EJMO026160176
Received: 14 April 2026 | Revised: 12 August 2026 | Accepted: 12 August 2026 | Published online: 4 September 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Download PDF
XML
Cite
Abstract

High-voltage electric pulses induce transient permeabilization of the cell membrane (electroporation), thereby facilitating the intracellular delivery of molecules that would otherwise be unable to cross the lipid bilayer. This approach has been successfully applied in electrochemotherapy (ECT), significantly enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of anticancer agents. In recent years, quantum dots (QDs) have attracted considerable attention as promising nanomaterials for cancer theranostics owing to their exceptional optical properties, high photostability, and multifunctional capabilities. However, the efficient and safe intracellular delivery of QDs remains a major challenge. This review summarizes current knowledge regarding the electro-assisted delivery of QDs, with particular emphasis on the role of electroporation in enhancing cellular uptake. We discuss available in vitro and in vivo studies, examine the key parameters affecting delivery efficiency, and address important issues related to cytotoxicity and biocompatibility. Furthermore, we highlight the potential of integrating electroporation-based techniques with QD nanotechnology as an innovative strategy for cancer theranostics. Finally, current limitations, challenges, and future perspectives for clinical translation are discussed.

Keywords
Quantum dots
Electroporation
Electrochemotherapy
Nanoparticles
Cancer theranostics
Funding
National Science Fund of Bulgaria Grant KP-06-COST/30.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
References
  1. Belehradek M, Domenge C, Luboinski B, Orlowski S, Belehradek J, Mir LM. Electrochemotherapy, a new antitumor treatment. First clinical phase I-II trial. Cancer. 1993;72(12):3694-3700. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19931215)72:12<3694::aid-cncr2820721222>3.0.co;2-2
  2. Cabuy E. Reliable cancer therapies. Energy-based therapies. Hyperthermia in Cancer Treatment, RCT summary for professionals. Energy-Based Ther. 2011;1(2):1-48.
  3. Cemazar M, Sersa G. Recent advances in electrochemotherapy. Bioelectricity. 2019;1:204-213. doi: 10.1089/bioe.2019.0028
  4. Tsoneva I, Semkova S, Bakalova R, et al. Electroporation, electrochemotherapy and electro-assisted drug delivery in cancer: a state-of-the-art review. Biophys Chem. 2022;286:106819. doi: 10.1016/j.bpc.2022.106819
  5. Marty M, Sersa G, Garbay JR, et al. Electrochemotherapy – An easy, highly effective and safe treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous metastases: Results of ESOPE (European Standard Operating Procedures of Electrochemotherapy) study. Eur J Cancer Suppl. 2006;4(11):3-13. doi: 10.1016/j.ejcsup.2006.08.002
  6. Daskalov I, Mudrov N, Peycheva E. Exploring new instrumentation parameters for electrochemotherapy: attacking tumors with bursts of biphasic pulses instead of single pulses. IEEE Eng Med Biol Mag. 1999;18(1):62-66. doi: 10.1109/51.740982
  7. Alauwaji RM, Dakhlaoui H, Algraphy E, Ungan F, Wong BM. Binding energies and optical properties of power-exponential and modified gaussian quantum dots. Molecules. 2024;29:3052. doi: 10.3390/molecules29133052
  8. Dakhlaoui H, Belhadj W, Elabidi H, Ungan F, Wong BM. GaAs quantum dot confined with a Woods–Saxon potential: role of structural parameters on binding energy and optical absorption. Inorganics. 2023;11:401. doi: 10.3390/inorganics11100401
  9. Ramos SC, Dias-Patrícia P, Luis AL, et al. Electrochemotherapy in dogs and cats: a review. Vet Comp Oncol. 2024;22(3):311-321. doi: 10.1111/vco.12980
  10. Tellado M, Mir LM, Maglietti F. Veterinary guidelines for electrochemotherapy of superficial tumors. Front Vet Sci. 2022;9:868989. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.868989
  11. Tratar UL, Milevoj N, Cemazar M, et al. Treatment of spontaneous canine mast cell tumors by electrochemotherapy combined with IL-12 gene electrotransfer. Int Immunopharmacol. 2023;120:110274. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2023.110274
  12. Maglietti FH, Tellado M, Ramallo GF, et al. Electrochemotherapy: a new therapy for patients with skin cancer in Latin America. Mundo Saude. 2024;48:e15462023. doi: 10.15343/0104-7809.202448e15462023I
  13. Morozas A, Malyško-Ptašinskė V, Kulbacka J, et al. Electrochemotherapy for head and neck cancers: possibilities and limitations. Front Oncol. 2024;14:1353800. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1353800
  14. Trotovsek B, Hadzialjevic B, Cemazar M, et al. Laparoscopic electrochemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: technological advancement. Front Oncol. 2022;12:996269. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.996269
  15. Rompianesi G, Loiaco G, Rescigno L, et al. Indications and clinical outcomes of electrochemotherapy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a systematic review. Cancers (Basel). 2025;17(3):408. doi: 10.3390/cancers17030408
  16. Schipilliti FM, Onorato M, Arrivi G, et al. Electrochemotherapy for solid tumors: literature review and a novel endoscopic approach. Radiol Oncol. 2022;56(3):285-291. doi: 10.2478/raon-2022-0022
  17. Vivod G, Omerzel M, Covacevic N, et al. Treatment of vulvar cancer recurrences with electrochemotherapy. Acta Oncol. 2024;63:351-357. doi: 10.2340/1651-226X.2024.33241
  18. Hadzialjevic B, Omerzel M, Trotovsek B, et al. Electrochemotherapy combined with immunotherapy: a promising approach. Front Immunol. 2024;14:1336866. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1336866
  19. Lisec B, Cemazar M, Muir T, et al. Bleomycin electroScleroTherapy (BEST): mechanistic parallels and unresolved questions. Radiol Oncol. 2026;60(1):1-14. doi: 10.2478/raon-2026-0017
  20. Pakhomova ON, Gregory BV, Khorokhorina VA, et al. Electroporation-induced electrosensitization. PLoS One. 2011;6(2):e17100. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017100
  21. Dermol J, Pakhomov ON, Pakhomov AG, et al. Cell electrosensitization exists only in certain electroporation buffers. PLoS One. 2016;11(7):e0159434. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159434
  22. Sun C, Cao Z, Wu M, Lu C. Intracellular tracking of single native molecules with electroporation-delivered quantum dots. Anal Chem. 2014;86:11403-11409. doi: 10.1021/ac503363m
  23. Souza SO, Lira RB, Cunha CRA, et al. Methods for intracellular delivery of quantum dots. Top Curr Chem. 2021;379(1):1. doi: 10.1007/s41061-020-00313-7
  24. Gidwani B, Sahu V, Shukla SS, et al. Quantum dots: prospectives, toxicity, advances and applications. J Drug Deliv Sci Technol. 2021;61:102308. doi: 10.1016/j.jddst.2020.102308
  25. Bruno JG. Advantages and disadvantages of using quantum dots in biological assay formats. In: Application of Quantum Dots in Biology and Medicine: Recent Advances. Singapore: Springer; 2022:91-102. doi: 10.1007/978-981-19-3144-4_5
  26. Abdellatif AAH, Younis MA, Alsharidah M, et al. Biomedical applications of quantum dots: overview, challenges, and clinical potential. Int J Nanomedicine. 2022;17:1951-1970. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S357980
  27. Le N, Kim K. Current advances in biomedical applications of quantum dots: promises and challenges. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(16):12682. doi: 10.3390/ijms241612682
  28. Pallares RM, Kiessling F, Lammers T. Clinical translation of quantum dots. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2024;19(29):2433-2435. doi: 10.1080/17435889.2024.2405458
  29. Mohamed WAA, Abd El-Gawad H, Mekkey H, et al. Quantum dots synthetization and future prospect applications. Nanotechnol Rev. 2021;10(1):1926-1940. doi: 10.1515/ntrev-2021-0118
  30. Ganti SS, Mamidala VS, Subba SS, et al. A review on quantum dots and their applications. OARJ Biol Pharm. 2024;12(2):24-33. doi: 10.53022/oarjbp.2024.12.2.0040
  31. Derfus AM, Chan WCW, Bhatia SN. Intracellular delivery of quantum dots for live cell labeling and organelle tracking. Adv Mater. 2004;16(12):961-966. doi: 10.1002/adma.200306111
  32. Chen F, Gerion D. Fluorescent CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal–peptide conjugates for imaging and nuclear targeting. Nano Lett. 2004;4(10):1827-1832. doi: 10.1021/nl049170q
  33. West DL, White SB, Zhang Z, et al. Optimization of electroporation-assisted nanoparticle uptake in pancreatic cancer model. Int J Nanomedicine. 2014;9:4169-4176. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S63324
  34. Katrukha EA, Mikhaylova M, van Brakel HX, et al. Probing cytoskeletal modulation of passive and active intracellular dynamics using nanobody-functionalized quantum dots. Nat Commun. 2017;21:14772. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14772
  35. Hatakeyama H, Nakahata Y, Yarimizu H, et al. Live-cell single-molecule labeling and analysis of myosin motors with quantum dots. Mol Biol Cell. 2017;28(1):173-181. doi: 10.1091/mbc.e16-06-0413
  36. Atanasova S, Nikolova B, Murayama S, et al. Electroinduced delivery of hydrogel nanoparticles in colon 26 cells, visualized by confocal fluorescence system. Anticancer Res. 2016;36(9):4601-4606. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.11009
  37. Skorupska S, Grabowska-Jadach I. Cytotoxicity studies of quantum dots with electroporation method. Bioelectrochemistry. 2019;126:86-91. doi: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2018.11.011
  38. Yoo JS, Won N, Kim HB, et al. In vivo imaging of cancer cells with electroporation of quantum dots and multispectral imaging. J Appl Phys. 2010;107:124702. doi: 10.1063/1.3447858
  39. Atanasova S, Lazarova D, Pancheva NLB, Zhelev Z. In vivo visualization of electro-assisted delivery of nanoparticles using optical imaging. Anticancer Res. 2014;34:5819-5821.
  40. Nikolova B, Atanasova S, Mudrov T, et al. Image-guided electro-assisted drug delivery: comparison between two types of electrodes. Int J Bioautom. 2015;19(2):259-266.
  41. Bakalova R, Nikolova B, Murayama S, et al. Passive and electro-assisted delivery of nanoparticles in solid tumors, visualized by optical and magnetic resonance imaging in vivo. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2016;408(3):905-914. doi: 10.1007/s00216-015-9182-4
  42. Murayama S, Jo J, Shibata Y, et al. The simple preparation of polyethylene glycol-based soft nanoparticles containing dual imaging probes. J Mater Chem B. 2013;1(38):4932-4938. doi: 10.1039/c3tb20828a
  43. Shukla N, Chanderiya A, Das R, et al. Au QDs in Advanced Biomedicine: Fluorescent, Biocompatible, and Multifunctional Nanoprobes for Imaging, Diagnostics, and Targeted Drug Delivery. J Nanotheranostics. 2025;6:25. doi: 10.3390/jnt6030025
  44. Guo W, Song X, Liu J, et al. Quantum dots as a potential multifunctional material for the enhancement of clinical diagnosis strategies and cancer treatments. Nanomaterials (Basel). 2024;14:1088. doi: 10.3390/nano14131088
Share
Back to top
Eurasian Journal of Medicine and Oncology, Electronic ISSN: 2587-196X Print ISSN: 2587-2400, Published by AccScience Publishing
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here
Accept