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EMF Study
(Database last updated on Mar 27, 2024)

ID Number 2665
Study Type Engineering & Physics
Model Mechanisms of biological effects of magnetic fields.
Details

AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Binhi and Sarimov 2009 (IEEE #6592): In our previous works, we reported that compensation of the geomagnetic field to a level less than 0.4 microT ("zero magnetic field," or ZMF) affected human cognitive processes. ZMF exposure increased the number of errors and the task processing time by 2.4% in average. However, in the array of the magnetic effects calculated from the experimental data, some readings have been found to deviate from the mean magnetic effect by more than three standard deviations. This finding could give rise to doubt as to whether the magnetic effect observed was a mere sequence of the presence of such unlikely data values. In the present work we examine the results of the unlikely data elimination and show that the corrected magnetic effect in tested humans remains statistically significant, though at a reduced magnitude 1.5%. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Binhi and Rubin 2007 (IEEE #6593): The article discusses the so-called 'kT problem' with its formulation, content, and consequences. The usual formulation of the problem points out the paradox of biological effects of weak low-frequency magnetic fields. At the same time, the formulation is based on several implicit assumptions. Analysis of these assumptions shows that they are not always justified. In particular, molecular targets of magnetic fields in biological tissues may operate under physical conditions that do not correspond to the aforementioned assumptions. Consequently, as it is, the kT problem may not be an argument against the existence of non thermal magnetobiological effects. Specific examples are discussed: magnetic nanoparticles found in many organisms, long-lived rotational states of some molecules within protein structures, spin magnetic moments in radical pairs, and magnetic moments of protons in liquid water. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi 2007 (IEEE #6594): Zhadin and Barnes [2005:26:323-330] concluded that they solved the differential equation describing combined action of DC and AC magnetic fields on thermal motion of ions in a biological macromolecule and, as a result, a diversity of biological phenomena could be explained. It is shown here that biological phenomena cannot be explained based on this model. Adair [2006:27:332-334] gave several arguments for the statement that the interaction of weak magnetic fields with ions trapped in protein cavities cannot produce detectable biological effects through changing the character of the ion orbits. The arguments are analyzed here and some are shown to be questionable or unjustified. We stress the difference between the conclusion made by Adair and that stated in this article. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi 2006 (IEEE #6595): The rotations of nanoscopic magnetic particles, magnetosomes, embedded into the cytoskeleton are considered. Under the influence of thermal disturbances, a great number of magnetosomes are shown to move chaotically between two stable equilibrium positions, in which their magnetic moments are neither parallel nor antiparallel to the static Earth's magnetic field (MF). The random rotations attain the value of order of a radian. The rate of the transitions and the probability of magnetosomes to be in the different states depend on the MF direction with respect to an averaged magnetosome's orientation. This effect explains the ability of migratory animals to orient themselves faultlessly in long term passages in the absence of the direct visibility of optical reference points. The sensitivity to deviation from an "ideal" orientation is estimated to be 2-4 degrees. Possible involvement of the stochastic dynamics of magnetosomes in biological magnetic navigation is discussed. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi and Blackman 2005 (IEEE (6596): The important experiments showing nonlinear amplitude dependences of the neurite outgrowth in pheochromocytoma nerve cells due to ELF magnetic field exposure had been carried out in a nonuniform ac magnetic field. The nonuniformity entailed larger than expected variances in magnetic field magnitudes associated with specific levels of biological effects, thereby evoking a question about validity of the interpretations formulated for the case of a uniform field. In this work, we calculate the relative value of nonuniformity and deviations in ac magnetic field. It is shown that these factors do not affect the main conclusion in the original papers about the form of the amplitude dependence of the observed biological effect. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi and Savin 2002 (IEEE #6597): Extremely low-frequency magnetic fields are known to affect biological systems. In many cases, biological effects display "windows" in biologically effective parameters of the magnetic fields: most dramatic is the fact that the relatively intense magnetic fields sometimes do not cause appreciable effect, while smaller fields of the order of 10-100 microT do. Linear resonant physical processes do not explain the frequency windows in this case. Amplitude window phenomena suggest a nonlinear physical mechanism. Such a nonlinear mechanism has been proposed recently to explain those "windows." It considers the quantum-interference effects on the protein-bound substrate ions. Magnetic fields cause an interference of ion quantum states and change the probability of ion-protein dissociation. This ion-interference mechanism predicts specific magnetic-field frequency and amplitude windows within which the biological effects occur. It agrees with a lot of experiments. However, according to the mechanism, the lifetime Gamma(-1) of ion quantum states within a protein cavity should be of unrealistic value, more than 0.01 s for frequency band 10-100 Hz. In this paper, a biophysical mechanism has been proposed, which (i) retains the attractive features of the ion interference mechanism, i.e., predicts physical characteristics that might be experimentally examined and (ii) uses the principles of gyroscopic motion and removes the necessity to postulate large lifetimes. The mechanism considers the dynamics of the density matrix of the molecular groups, which are attached to the walls of protein cavities by two covalent bonds, i.e., molecular gyroscopes. Numerical computations have shown almost free rotations of the molecular gyroscopes. The relaxation time due to van der Waals forces was about 0.01 s for the cavity size of 28 A. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi et al. 2001 (IEEE #6598): The effect of week static magnetic fields on Escherichia coli K12 AB1157 cells was studied by the method of anomalous viscosity time dependencies (AVTD). The AVTD changes were found when E. coli cells were exposed to static fields within the range from 0 to 110 microT. The dependence of the effect on the magnetic flux density had several extrema. These results were compared with theoretical predictions of the ion interference mechanism. This mechanism links the dissociation probability of ion--protein complexes to parameters of magnetic fields. The mechanism was extended to the case of rotating complexes. Calculations were made for several ions of biological relevance. The results of simulations for Ca(2+), Mg(2+), and Zn(2+) showed a remarkable consistency with experimental data. An important condition for this consistency was that all complexes rotate with the same speed approximately 18 revolutions per second (rps). This suggests that the rotation of the same carrier for all ion--protein complexes may be involved in the mechanism of response to the magnetic field. We believe that this carrier is DNA. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi and Goldman 2000 (IEEE #6599): There are many experiments showing that weak, non-thermal electric fields influence living tissues. In many cases, biological effects display 'windows' in biologically effective parameters of electric fields: most dramatic is the fact that relatively intense electric fields sometimes do not cause appreciable effect, while smaller fields do. Linear resonant physical processes do not explain frequency windows in this case. Both frequency and amplitude windows are evident from experiments on human dermal fibroblasts in a collagen matrix. For this in vitro model of skin, exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) electric fields in the frequency range 10-100 Hz and the amplitude range of 0-130 microA/cm(2) macroscopic current density demonstrates such unusual 'window' behavior. Amplitude window phenomena suggest a non-linear physical mechanism. We consider non-linear quantum-interference effects on protein-bound substrate ions: These ions experience, due to electric fields in the media or biological tissue as small as 1 mV/m, electric gradients produced by polarized binding ligand atomic shells. The electric gradients cause an interference of ion quantum states. This ion-interference mechanism predicts specific electric-field frequency and amplitude windows within which fibroblast proliferation occurs. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi 2000 (IEEE #6600): A mechanism is presented that predicts new biological effects of static and sinusoidal weak magnetic fields. The model is based on an earlier proposed interference mechanism of quantum states of ions within protein cavities. The quantum dynamics of an ion is studied for the case of ion-protein complexes that rotate in magnetic fields. Both the individual molecular rotation and rotation together with a biological sample are taken into account. A formula is derived for the magnetic field-dependent part of the dissociation probability of an ion-protein in these conditions. The formula explains the unusual amplitude dependence of the known biological effect in PC-12 cells exposed to AC-DC magnetic field. The dependence had the functional motif J(2)(1)(2H(AC)/H(DC)), where J(1) is the first order Bessel function of the first kind. A good fit was obtained assuming individual rotation of the Li-protein complex in MF. The macroscopic rotation of a biological system, even at low speed 1.5-2 Hz, is predicted to reduce the biological effects of a "magnetic vacuum" and to shift the spectral peaks in the field and frequency dependencies of some magnetobiological effects. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi 2012 (IEEE #6601): Frequency distributions of the values of magnetic effects have been calculated from the results of <120 thousand single trials during psychophysical testing of 40 people under normal conditions and exposure in a hundredfold weakened geomagnetic field. Two types of such distribution were shown to be attributed to (a) the individual reactions to the change of magnetic field and (b) the batch magnetic effect on the set of individual reactions. The methodological consequences significant for detecting magnetic biological phenomena and studying their nature are discussed. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Binhi et al. 2006 (IEEE #6602): The formulation, content, and corollaries of the so-called kT problem are considered. The problem points to a paradox in the biological effect of weak low-frequency magnetic fields. The conventional formulation of the problem contains implicit assumptions that prove not fully valid according to the results of analysis. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi 2008 (IEEE #6603): Purpose: To develop the hypothesis that magnetic nanoparticles, found in many organisms and often involved in biological reactions to weak electromagnetic fields (EMF), mediate EMF-induced DNA damage which could result in increased risk of childhood leukaemia and other cancers. Materials and methods: An analysis of current research into magnetic nanoparticles. Physics estimates and the development of the hypothesis that intracellular magnetic nanoparticles chronically change the free radical concentration and can mediate the enhanced rate of DNA damage in hematopoietic stem cells. Results: The properties of magnetic nanoparticles are considered and the naturally occurring magnetic field generated by a magnetic nanoparticle within a cell is calculated to be in the range of about 1200 millitesla, which exceeds the level of the natural geomagnetic field by orders of magnitude. Experiments are summarized on the biological effects of static magnetic field in this range. It is shown that magnetic nanoparticles can increase the rate of free radical formation by a few percent, in the course of an idealized radical-pair reaction in a cell. A mechanism is discussed that explains how weak alternating magnetic fields, of the order of 0.4 ¼T, could cause an increase in the rate of leukaemia via millitesla fields produced around superparamagnetic nanoparticles in hematopoietic stem cells. Conclusions: The postulated presence of magnetic nanoparticles located in hematopoietic stem cells could constitute a cancer risk factor. Superparamagnetic nanoparticles can possibly mediate increased level of leukaemia caused by background exposure to low-frequency weak EMF. AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT: Binhi 2016 (IEEE #6604): The primary physical mechanism of the magnetoreception of weak magnetic fields is considered. It imposes limits on the magnetic biological effect at the stage prior to the involvement of specific biophysical and biochemical mechanisms, i.e., regardless of the nature of the target of the magnetic field. It has been shown that the biological effects of weak magnetic fields have, in general, non-linear and spectral properties. Observation of these characteristics gives information not only on the gyromagnetic ratio, but also on the parameters of the interaction between the target and its immediate surroundings. This makes it possible for one to develop schemes for the identification of the biophysical mechanisms of magnetoreception.

Findings Ongoing
Status Completed With Publication
Principal Investigator Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Funding Agency ?????
Country RUSSIAN FEDERATION
References
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  • Binhi, V International Journal of Radiation Biology., (2008) 84(7):569-579
  • Binhi, VN Biophysics., (2016) 61:170-176
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