Electron Tunneling Associated With Ferritin In Vivo In The Retina, The Cochlea, Macrophages And Other Tissues
Ferritin-associated electron tunneling was proposed as early as 1988, but is still viewed with skepticism despite strong evidence for its occurrence. In a recent paper published in IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multiscale Communications, my co-authors and I review evidence for electron tunneling in ferrite, as well as evidence that such electron tunneling can be exploited by biological systems, including the retina. macrophages, glial cells, mitochondria and the magneto-sensory system.
Although these different systems belong to different fields of research, we hope that this article will raise awareness of the ferritin-related electron tunneling process and stimulate further investigation of this phenomenon in ferritin-related biological systems, especially where there is no obvious need for storage. . Ferritin functions in this glandular system.
A brief history of ferritin and ferritin research
Ferritin is an iron storage protein that self-assembles into a 12-nm-diameter, 2-nm-thick globular membrane that can hold up to 4,500 iron atoms in an 8-nm-diameter core. With an evolutionary history going back more than 1.2 billion years, this may seem pretty old, but remember that single-celled organisms first appeared 3.5 billion years ago. Thus, the evolution of ferrite may have taken more than two billion years. When the first multicellular organisms appeared about 600 million years ago, members of the ferritin family of proteins were probably present, and today they are found in almost all plants and animals.
The first suggestion that ferrite might have some quantum mechanical properties was in 1988, 88 years after the discovery of quantum mechanics and 8 years after the discovery of quantum dots, semiconductor nanoparticles, that behave like artificial atoms and form ferrite. . . . Quantum mechanical properties include the magnetic behavior of iron in the ferrite shell and electron tunneling to form crystalline structures in the core.
Additional studies discussed in the paper provide substantial evidence for the existence of such quantum mechanical properties. However, these features of these billion-year-old biostructures have been treated primarily as curiosities or artifacts, rather than as quantifiable biological factors. Biologists and many other scientists have been skeptical of quantum biology (although many scientists who discovered quantum mechanics 100 years ago believed it could be applied to biology), but it is a growing field of research. At many famous universities like Caltech, Yale, University of Chicago and UCLA.
What is electron tunneling?
Quantum mechanics assumes that the physical properties of electrons, protons, neutrons, and other objects called subatomic "particles" are determined by probability waves. Experimental evidence for the wave behavior of these particles has been obtained and is generally accepted. These waves are described by these experiments as the probability of finding a physical property of a particle in time and space, sometimes called the "collapse" of the wave function.
But when the particle collapses, nothing changes except the behavior of the wave function. A wave function can be called "coherent" when it behaves according to the Schrödinger wave function, and "coherent" when it interacts with other particles and does not behave according to this wave function.
The spatial wave properties of electrons in a vacuum can have a wavelength of about 5 nm at room temperature, which is important for molecular interactions. Electrons can move in molecules when they "touch" each other (the wave functions of atoms and subatomic particles in molecules actually interact) can be called static or classical behavior, but properly speaking, electrons can "pass". Between molecules, that is, it can move from one molecule to another in a way that does not allow for static or classical behavior. There's nothing mysterious about it, it's just a physical property of electrons, but since the wave function is a probability wave, it can seem mysterious.
Some of Lee's co-authors have shown that electrons can tunnel up to 12 nm through ferrite in sequential tunneling events, and that the unusual magnetic properties of ferrite's backbone components may be due to its unusually long electron tunneling distance. . This work was based on so-called "solid state" experiments, which do not involve living biological systems. Since electron tunneling cannot be observed directly, it must be inferred from other data such as measured current and voltage. Proof of such electron tunneling in biological systems is more difficult, but possible.
Electron tunneling in biological systems containing ferrite
Ferritin has several putative cellular interactions associated with electron tunneling. The first is electronic storage. Laboratory experiments outside the cell, sometimes called "in vitro," from the Latin word for "in a glass," have demonstrated the ability of ferritin to store electrons in aqueous solution for several hours. This is unusual because iron stored in ferrite is expected to be released after gaining an electron, but this does not happen quickly. This observation suggests that electrons do not simply flow through the insulating protein membrane by classical conductance, but instead move electrostatically or tunnel.
Current data show that in solid-state experiments, electrons can tunnel up to 8 nm through ferritin, so it is possible that electrons stored in the ferrite core can tunnel into particles as small as 2 nm. A protein shell, like a free radical, has an energy level that allows it to accept electrons. These free radicals can steal electrons from other molecules and damage cells. One of the functions of antioxidants is to neutralize free radicals by donating electrons.
In the cellular environment, ferritin interacts with antioxidants such as ascorbic acid (better known as vitamin C) and stabilizes excess iron released in response to free radicals. If ferritin can store electrons from antioxidants to present them to free radicals via electron tunneling, it can increase the efficiency of this neutralization reaction by allowing electrons to reach distant free radicals and store them until needed.
If the only function of ferritin is to store iron, it makes no sense when there is no excess iron, as is often the source of free radicals, inflammation, and ROS. The complexity of iron utilization by cells, known as iron homeostasis, complicates the detection of ferritin-associated electron tunneling.
Another proposed quantum biological function of electron tunneling in ferritin is the transport of electrons in the intercellular space. In a cell type called M2 macrophages, ferritin can form fairly regularly spaced structures that are used by macrophages to deliver ferritin to cells supported by the macrophages. For example, macrophages are associated with high levels of ferritin, which is associated with certain types of cancer and helps neutralize inflammation in cancer cells.
Antioxidants may help some cancer cells survive by providing electrons to neutralize free radicals and ROS, but in the absence of antioxidants in these cells, is it possible for M2 macrophages to tunnel electrons through ferritin structures to other cells with ferritin? There is also evidence for this feature.
In a small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiment performed by Dr. Olga Mikhaylik on placental tissue containing macrophages, non-existent enhanced neutron scattering was measured as the amount of ferritin removed from the tissue. Neutron scattering can occur in solids containing nanoparticles with balanced magnetic moments, and these experiments show that ferritin balances the magnetic moments of placental tissue containing macrophages.
Prof. Heinz Nakuth also performed SANS experiments on self-assembled ferrite monolayers (SAMs) of ferrite showing neutron scattering, Prof. Cai Shen and my experiments showed that self-assembled ferritin sheets such as M2 macrophages cannot conduct electrons outside the gap. below 80 microns in the laboratory, but these electrons are transferred through a physical process known as Coulomb confinement.
Sending electrons to ferritin where it is needed to scavenge free radicals, inflammation, and ROS in cells is another proposed quantum biological function, but since electron tunneling cannot be directly observed, more research is needed to test this hypothesis.
Conclusion and next steps
This new paper in IEEE Transactions on Ferritin provides more details on how these building blocks can be used for electron tunneling functions in various ferritin-containing biological systems, but researchers in different research areas of these biological systems need to design experiments to test whether electron tunneling is present. It happens. .
Many biological researchers do not understand electron tunneling and are skeptical of quantum biology, so it may be decades before these questions are answered and used to treat cancer, blindness, deafness, and other diseases. We hope that this article will help raise awareness and stimulate further research on how biological systems exploit the well-established electron tunneling phenomenon in ferrite.
This story is part of the Science X Dialogue, where researchers can report the results of their published scientific work. For information on ScienceX discussions and how to participate, visit this page.
Additional information: Ismail Diez Perez et al., IEEE Transactions on Electron Tunneling, Molecular, Biological, and Multiscale Interactions in Ferritin and Related Biosystems (2023). doi: 10.1109/TMBMC.2023.3275793
Biography: Chris Rourke is a citizen scientist and patent attorney studying quantum biological processes using ferritin-bound electron tunneling since 2017. In 1987
Citation : Ferritin-induced electron tunneling in retina, cochlea, connective tissue, and other tissues in vivo (2023, June 27). Retrieved June 30, 2023, from https://phys.org/news/2023-06-electron-tunneling-ferritin. - vivo - retina - 1.html
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