Electrochemically activated chemotherapy (EAC) is two things:
 

1. A natural philosophy school of biomimetic pharmaceutical design; and or, 

2. A type of patented medical treatment that uses a chemotherapeutic galvanostat/potentiostat (CGP) to activate prodrugs and or precursor molecules.

EAC is biomimetic and the only technique that uses electrochemistry as a mechanism of prodrug activation. 

EAC is sometimes also referred to as electroactivated chemotherapy, artificial bioactivation, or electrodrugs.

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EAC can use any type of redox reactive precursor molecule including antibodies, proteins, small molecules, inorganic molecules and ions, and DNA and RNA.

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The proof-of-concept work for EAC was first performed experimentally in July 2011 using acetaminophen, a graphite anode, a flow-through electrochemical cell (Figure 1), and a mouse mammary epithelial-mesenchymal transition 6 (EMT-6) ductal adenocarcinoma cell line by Jordache Boudreau at The University Of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

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Figure 1. The first-ever(!) electrochemically activated chemotherapy (EAC) apparatus, circa. May 19, 2011. Front-to-back: flow-through electrochemical cell with activated carbon packed-bed anode, peristaltic pump, prodrug reservoir, EG&G potentiostat/galvanostat.

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Using a CGP, individuals and teams are able to develop and test redox sensitive drugs for further market development, going so far as to design electro-reactive chaperone leaving groups to active molecules, as with the case of cyclophosphamide, a World Health Organization anti-cancer molecule in-use since the 1960s.

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