Multiple Fröhlich coherent states in biological systems: Computer simulation

Computer simulation of the energy storage in the band of normal modes with energy supply based on the kinetic equation with nonlinear (parametric) energy exchange terms indicates the possibility of the multiple Fröhlich coherent states excitation. It is mainly connected with the non-uniform transmission probabilities ξ of the combined emission-absorption processes between vibration modes. The effect of the coherent states changes on the long-range interaction forces and cancer cell migration is discussed.     

Spontaneous and light-induced photon emission from intact brains of chick embryos

Photon emission (PE) and light-induced photon emission(LPE) of intact brains isolated from chick embryos have been measured by using the single photon counting device. Experimental results showed that the intensi-ty level of photon emission was detected to be higher from intact brain than from the medium in which the brain was immerged during measuring, and the emission intensity was related to the developmental stages, the healthy situation of the measured embryos, and the freshness of isolated brains as well. After white light illumination, a short-life de-layed emission from intact brains was observed, and its relaxation behavior followed a hyperbolic rather than an expo-nential law. According to the hypothesis of biophoton emission originating from a delocalized coherent electromagnetic field and Frohlich's idea of coherent long-range interactions in biological systems, discussions were made on the signifi-cance of photon emission in studying cell communication, biological regulation, living system'     

Electric field generated by axial longitudinal vibration modes of microtubule

Microtubules are electrically polar structures fulfilling prerequisites for generation of oscillatory electric field in the kHz to GHz region. Energy supply for excitation of elasto-electrical vibrations in microtubules may be provided from GTP-hydrolysis; motor protein–microtubule interactions; and energy efflux from mitochondria. We calculated electric field generated by axial longitudinal vibration modes of microtubules for random, and coherent excitation. In case of coherent excitation of vibrations, the electric field intensity is highest at the end of microtubule. The dielectrophoretic force exerted by electric field on the surrounding molecules will influence the kinetics of microtubule polymerization via change in the probability of the transport of charge and mass particles. The electric field generated by vibrations of electrically polar cellular structures is expected to play an important role in biological self-organization.     

Comparison of a QM/MM force field and molecular mechanics force fields in simulations of alanine and glycine "dipeptides" (Ace-Ala-Nme and Ace-Gly-Nme) in water in relation to the problem of modeling the unfolded peptide backbone in solution

We compare the conformational distributions of Ace-Ala-Nme and Ace-Gly-Nme sampled in long simulations with several molecular mechanics (MM) force fields and with a fast combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) force field, in which the solute's intramolecular energy and forces are calculated with the self-consistent charge density functional tight binding method (SCCDFTB), and the solvent is represented by either one of the well-known SPC and TIP3P models. All MM force fields give two main states for Ace-Ala-Nme, beta and alpha separated by free energy barriers, but the ratio in which these are sampled varies by a factor of 30, from a high in favor of beta of 6 to a low of 1/5. The frequency of transitions between states is particularly low with the amber and charmm force fields, for which the distributions are noticeably narrower, and the energy barriers between states higher. The lower of the two barriers lies between alpha and beta at values of psi near 0 for all MM simulations except for charmm22. The results of the QM/MM simulations vary less with the choice of MM force field; the ratio beta/alpha varies between 1.5 and 2.2, the easy pass lies at psi near 0, and transitions between states are more frequent than for amber and charmm, but less frequent than for cedar. For Ace-Gly-Nme, all force fields locate a diffuse stable region around phi = pi and psi = pi, whereas the amber force field gives two additional densely sampled states near phi = +/-100 degrees and psi = 0, which are also found with the QM/MM force field. For both solutes, the distribution from the QM/MM simulation shows greater similarity with the distribution in high-resolution protein structures than is the case for any of the MM simulations.     

Issues in electromagnetic field-biointeractions

Low level electromagnetic fields have been found to produce a variety of biological effects, though the mechanism of such interaction is still not completely understood. Cell membrane of the brain is a critical structure perceiving the action of microwaves, which has received greater attention in the recent past. The interactions of EMF with the living cells are considered as stochastic resonance, cooperative effects, non-equilibrium thermodynamic process and non-linear interactions. The living cells derive the energy from noise and pumps it into the modes of excitation at the driving frequency of an electromagnetic wave which give sufficient amplification of the signal and increase the signal to noise ratio. The non-linear mechanism plays their main role in the process of transmembrane coupling of the signal to the cytoplasm. The criteria for safe exposure limits of electromagnetic field to humans is also discussed.     

Functionality of natural killer cells from end-stage cancer patients exposed to coherent electromagnetic fields

The main objective of our study is to investigate whether an enhancement of the immune system in end-stage cancer patients is achieved by exposure to coherent electromagnetic fields. For this reason, 15 end-stage cancer patients were exposed at low intensity, coherent electromagnetic fields at radiofrequencies ranging from 600?kHz-729?Hz, for 8?h/day, 6 days/week for 4 weeks. NKs number and cytotoxicity of NK T-lymphocytes versus K562 cancer cell line were estimated by flow cytometry, before and after exposure. Data showed that the exposure of the end-stage cancer patients to the coherent electromagnetic fields resulted in a significant increase of the number and the cytotoxicity of the NK T-lymphocytes against cancer cells, in all patients. Exposure to coherent EMFs at radiofrequencies increases the number and cytotoxicity of NK T-lymphocytes, which may contribute to the improvement of cancer patients' status.     

Functionality of natural killer cells from end-stage cancer patients exposed to coherent electromagnetic fields

The main objective of our study is to investigate whether an enhancement of the immune system in end-stage cancer patients is achieved by exposure to coherent electromagnetic fields. For this reason, 15 end-stage cancer patients were exposed at low intensity, coherent electromagnetic fields at radiofrequencies ranging from 600 kHz–729 Hz, for 8 h/day, 6 days/week for 4 weeks. NKs number and cytotoxicity of NK T-lymphocytes versus K562 cancer cell line were estimated by flow cytometry, before and after exposure. Data showed that the exposure of the end-stage cancer patients to the coherent electromagnetic fields resulted in a significant increase of the number and the cytotoxicity of the NK T-lymphocytes against cancer cells, in all patients. Exposure to coherent EMFs at radiofrequencies increases the number and cytotoxicity of NK T-lymphocytes, which may contribute to the improvement of cancer patients' status.     

Fröhlich electromagnetic radiation from human leukocytes: Implications for leukocyte adherence inhibition test

The Fröhlich coherent vibrations may be a source of an electromagnetic field generated by living cells in the frequency range from 0·1 to 10 THz. The electromagnetic field may cause the time dependent orientation (i.e. rotation or rocking) of the polar molecules of the ambient liquid medium and may attract them. The attracted molecules move together with the cell and the friction coefficient of the cellular motion, therefore, may depend on the field. The cell-generated electromagnetic field may interact with the surface charge of various solid-state materials causing attractive forces. These interaction attractive forces may be significant in the process of the leukocyte adherence to the surfaces of various materials. The hypothesis presented in this paper assumes that the exposition of leukocytes from immune individuals to antigen causes changes of the Fröhlich coherent vibrations resulting in decrease of the leukocyte adherence observed in the leukocyte adherence inhibition test.     

Superimposing spatially coherent electromagnetic noise inhibits field-induced abnormalities in developing chick embryos

Living cells exist in an electrically noisy environment. This has led to the so-called “signal-to-noise” problem whereby cells are observed to respond to extremely-low-frequency (ELF) exogenous fields that are several orders of magnitude weaker than local endogenous fields associated with thermal fluctuations. To resolve this dilemma, we propose that living cells are affected only by electromagnetic fields that are spatially coherent over their surface. The basic idea is that a significant number of receptors must be simultaneously and coherently activated (biological cooperativity) to produce effects on the biochemical functioning of the cell. However, like all physical detection systems, cells are subject to the laws of conventional physics and can be confused by noise. This suggests that a spatially coherent but temporally random noise field superimposed on a coherent ELF signal will defeat the mechanism of discrimination against noise, and any observed field-induced bioeffects would be suppressed. An experimental test of this idea was conducted using morphological abnormalities in developing chick embryos caused by electromagnetic field exposure as the endpoint. At an impressed noise amplitude comparable to the ELF field strength (but roughly one-thousandth of the thermal noise field), the increased abnormality rate observed with only the ELF field present was reduced to a level essentially the same as for the control embryos. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Electromagnetic cellular interactions

Chemical and electrical interaction within and between cells is well established. Just the opposite is true about cellular interactions via other physical fields. The most probable candidate for an other form of cellular interaction is the electromagnetic field. We review theories and experiments on how cells can generate and detect electromagnetic fields generally, and if the cell-generated electromagnetic field can mediate cellular interactions. We do not limit here ourselves to specialized electro-excitable cells. Rather we describe physical processes that are of a more general nature and probably present in almost every type of living cell. The spectral range included is broad; from kHz to the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. We show that there is a rather large number of theories on how cells can generate and detect electromagnetic fields and discuss experimental evidence on electromagnetic cellular interactions in the modern scientific literature. Although small, it is continuously accumulating.     

Mechanism for action of electromagnetic fields on cells

A biophysical model for the action of oscillating electric fields on cells, presented by us before [Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 272(3) (2000) 634-640], is extended now to include oscillating magnetic fields as well, extended to include the most active biological conditions, and also to explain why pulsed electromagnetic fields can be more active biologically than continuous ones. According to the present theory, the low frequency fields are the most bioactive ones. The basic mechanism is the forced-vibration of all the free ions on the surface of a cell's plasma membrane, caused by an external oscillating field. We have shown that this coherent vibration of electric charge is able to irregularly gate electrosensitive channels on the plasma membrane and thus cause disruption of the cell's electrochemical balance and function [Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 272(3) (2000) 634-640]. It seems that this simple idea can be easily extended now and looks very likely to be able to give a realistic basis for the explanation of a wide range of electromagnetic field bioeffects.     

Bio-soliton model that predicts non-thermal electromagnetic frequency bands,that either stabilize or destabilize living cells

Solitons, as self-reinforcing solitary waves, interact with complex biological phenomena such as cellular self-organization. A soliton model is able to describe a spectrum of electromagnetism modalities that can be applied to understand the physical principles of biological effects in living cells, as caused by endogenous and exogenous electromagnetic fields and is compatible with quantum coherence. A bio-soliton model is proposed, that enables to predict which eigen-frequencies of non-thermal electromagnetic waves are life-sustaining and which are, in contrast, detrimental for living cells. The particular effects are exerted by a range of electromagnetic wave eigen-frequencies of one-tenth of a Hertz till Peta Hertz that show a pattern of 12 bands, and can be positioned on an acoustic reference frequency scale. The model was substantiated by a meta-analysis of 240 published articles of biological electromagnetic experiments, in which a spectrum of non-thermal electromagnetic waves were exposed to living cells and intact organisms. These data support the concept of coherent quantized electromagnetic states in living organisms and the theories of Fröhlich, Davydov and Pang. It is envisioned that a rational control of shape by soliton-waves and related to a morphogenetic field and parametric resonance provides positional information and cues to regulate organism-wide systems properties like anatomy, control of reproduction and repair.     

Calcium protects differentiating neuroblastoma cells during 50 Hz electromagnetic radiation

Despite growing concern about electromagnetic radiation, the interaction between 50- to 60-Hz fields and biological structures remains obscure. Epidemiological studies have failed to prove a significantly correlation between exposure to radiation fields and particular pathologies. We demonstrate that a 50- to 60-Hz magnetic field interacts with cell differentiation through two opposing mechanisms: it antagonizes the shift in cell membrane surface charges that occur during the early phases of differentiation and it modulates hyperpolarizing K channels by increasing intracellular Ca. The simultaneous onset of both mechanisms prevents alterations in cell differentiation. We propose that cells are normally protected against electromagnetic insult. Pathologies may arise, however, if intracellular Ca regulation or K channel activation malfunctions.     

Vibrational resonances in biological systems at microwave frequencies

Many biological systems can be expected to exhibit resonance behavior involving the mechanical vibration of system elements. The natural frequencies of such resonances will, generally, be in the microwave frequency range. Some of these systems will be coupled to the electromagnetic field by the charge distributions they carry, thus admitting the possibility that microwave exposures may generate physiological effects in man and other species. However, such microwave excitable resonances are expected to be strongly damped by interaction with their aqueous biological environment. Although those dissipation mechanisms have been studied, the limitations on energy transfers that follow from the limited coupling of these resonances to the electromagnetic field have not generally been considered. We show that this coupling must generally be very small and thus the absorbed energy is so strongly limited that such resonances cannot affect biology significantly even if the systems are much less strongly damped than expected from basic dissipation models.     

Electromagnetic Field Propagation in the One-Dimensional Silver Nanoparticle Dimer Chains: Hotspots and Energy Transport

Strong local electromagnetic (EM) fields and efficient EM energy transport in metallic nanostructures are two important issues in their applications in quantum computations/communications. We investigate the propagation characteristics of the hotspots in one-dimensional silver nanoparticle dimer chains, which combine the functions of the gap field enhancement and the waveguide. The near field and the far field induced interplay among the local field enhancement, the radiative interaction, and the dissipation affects significantly the EM field transport efficiency. Moreover, the correlation between local structure and global structure leads to the structure-dependent excitation. With the help of the combined effects of the structure-dependent excitation, the field confinement and the propagation, the efficient EM field excitation, and long-range propagation can be obtained by tuning the structure of our systems. With suitable geometric parameters (dimer orientations, dimer gap sizes) of our system, the electric field intensity at the position 5000 nm away from the starting point (exciting point) is about 50 times of the corresponding field intensity in a silver nanoparticle chain.

     

Electron Energy Loss and One- and Two-Photon Excited SERS Probing of “Hot” Plasmonic Silver Nanoaggregates

We report electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and one- and two-photon excited surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and hyper Raman studies on plasmonic silver nanoaggregates. By comparison with computations, EELS imaging reveals an inverse relationship between local field intensity in an optical experiment and electron energy loss intensity at energies corresponding to excitation wavelengths used for optical probing. This inverse relation exists independent on specific nanoaggregate geometries and is mainly controlled by the gap size between the particles forming the aggregate. The ratio between two- and one-photon excited SERS measured at different excitation wavelengths provides information about local fields in the hottest spots and their dependence on the photon energy. Our data verify experimentally the predicted increase of local optical fields in the hot spots with increasing wave lengths. The reported findings show new experimental ways to characterize local fields of plasmonic nanostructures. This is of particular importance for complex structures which are not easily approachable by computations.     

The Importance of Subcellular Structures to the Modeling of Biological Cells in the Context of Computational Bioelectromagnetics Simulations

Numerical investigation of the interaction of electromagnetic fields with eukaryotic cells requires specifically adapted computer models. Virtual microdosimetry, used to investigate exposure, requires volumetric cell models, which are numerically challenging. For this reason, a method is presented here to determine the current and volumetric loss densities occurring in single cells and their distinct compartments in a spatially accurate manner as a first step toward multicellular models within the microstructure of tissue layers. To achieve this, 3D models of the electromagnetic exposure of generic eukaryotic cells of different shape (i.e. spherical and ellipsoidal) and internal complexity (i.e. different organelles) are performed in a virtual, finite element method-based capacitor experiment in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 100 GHz. In this context, the spectral response of the current and loss distribution within the cell compartments is investigated and any effects that occur are attributed either to the dispersive material properties of these compartments or to the geometric characteristics of the cell model investigated in each case. In these investigations, the cell is represented as an anisotropic body with an internal distributed membrane system of low conductivity that mimics the endoplasmic reticulum in a simplified manner. This will be used to determine which details of the cell interior need to be modeled, how the electric field and the current density will be distributed in this region, and where the electromagnetic energy is absorbed in the microstructure regarding electromagnetic microdosimetry. Results show that for 5 G frequencies, membranes make a significant contribution to the absorption losses. © 2023 The Authors. Bioelectromagnetics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Bioelectromagnetics Society.     

Electromagnetic Field of Microtubules: Effects on Transfer of Mass Particles and Electrons

Biological polar molecules and polymer structures with energy supply (such as microtubules in the cytoskeleton) can get excited and generate an endogenous electromagnetic field with strong electrical component in their vicinity. The endogenous electrical fields through action on charges, on dipoles and multipoles, and through polarization (causing dielectrophoretic effect) exert forces and can drive charges and particles in the cell. The transport of mass particles and electrons is analyzed as a Wiener-Lévy process with inclusion of deterministic force (validity of the Bloch theorem is assumed for transport of electrons in molecular chains too). We compare transport driven by deterministic forces (together with an inseparable thermal component) with that driven thermally and evaluate the probability to reach the target. Deterministic forces can transport particles and electrons with higher probability than forces of thermal origin only. The effect of deterministic forces on directed transport is dominant.     

The wonders of magnetism

In this acceptance address for the Bioelectromagnetics Society's 2001 d'Arsonval Award, Dr. Tenforde reviews the highlights of the nonionizing field aspects of his research and scientific service career. These are focused in four areas: (a). development and application of microelectrophoretic methods to probe the surface chemistry of normal and cancerous cells; (b). research on the biophysical mechanisms of interaction and the dosimetry of static and extremely low frequency magnetic fields; (c). application of extremely high intensity magnetic fields in several spectroscopic methods for probing the detailed structures of large biological macromolecules; and (d). development of national and international guidelines for the exposure of workers and members of the general public to electromagnetic fields with frequencies spanning the entire nonionizing electromagnetic spectrum.