Statistical Amplification of the Effects of Weak Magnetic Fields in Cellular Translation

We assume that the enzymatic processes of recognition of amino acids and their addition to the synthesized molecule in cellular translation include the formation of intermediate pairs of radicals with spin-correlated electrons. The mathematical model presented describes the changes in the probability of incorrectly synthesized molecules in response to a change in the external weak magnetic field. A relatively high chance of errors has been shown to arise from the statistical enhancement of the low probability of local incorporation errors. This statistical mechanism does not require a long thermal relaxation time of electron spins of about 1 μs-a conjecture often used to match theoretical models of magnetoreception with experiments. The statistical mechanism allows for experimental verification by testing the usual Radical Pair Mechanism properties. In addition, this mechanism localizes the site where magnetic effects originate, the ribosome, which makes it possible to verify it by biochemical methods. This mechanism predicts a random nature of the nonspecific effects caused by weak and hypomagnetic fields and agrees with the diversity of biological responses to a weak magnetic field.

Influence of a Constant Magnetic Field on the Infectious Titer of Black Sea Algal Viruses

The change in the infectious titer of strains of the Black Sea algal viruses of three species of microalgae (Tetraselmis viridis-strain TvV-S21-1, Dunaliella viridis-strain DvV-S20-1 and Phaeodactylum tricornutum-strain PtV-S20-1) after incubation in a constant unidirectional magnetic field with a magnetic induction of 60 mT was studied experimentally. The studies were carried out using a laboratory installation with a duration of experiments ranging from 24-72 h to 6-8 days. A decrease in the infectious titer of algal viruses by 1-2 orders (10-100 times) was recorded after a magnetic load.

Extremely low-frequency pulses of faint magnetic field induce mitophagy to rejuvenate mitochondria

Humans are frequently exposed to time-varying and static weak magnetic fields (WMF). However, the effects of faint magnetic fields, weaker than the geomagnetic field, have been scarcely reported. Here we show that extremely low-frequency (ELF)-WMF, comprised of serial pulses of 10 µT intensity at 1–8 Hz, which is three or more times weaker than the geomagnetic field, reduces mitochondrial mass to 70% and the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) complex II activity to 88%. Chemical inhibition of electron flux through the mitochondrial ETC complex II nullifies the effect of ELF-WMF. Suppression of ETC complex II subsequently induces mitophagy by translocating parkin and PINK1 to the mitochondria and by recruiting LC3-II. Thereafter, mitophagy induces PGC-1α-mediated mitochondrial biogenesis to rejuvenate mitochondria. The lack of PINK1 negates the effect of ELF-WMF. Thus, ELF-WMF may be applicable for the treatment of human diseases that exhibit compromised mitochondrial homeostasis, such as Parkinson’s disease.

The effect of extremely low-frequency pulses of faint magnetic field on mitochondria is investigated, where it led to reduced mitochondrial mass, membrane potential and electron transport chain activity, and induced mitophagy.

Random Effects in Magnetobiology and a Way to Summarize Them

In magnetobiology, it is difficult to reproduce the nonspecific (not associated with specialized receptors) biological effects of weak magnetic fields. This means that some important characteristic of the data may be missed in standard statistical processing, where the set of measurements to be averaged belongs to the same population so that the contribution of fluctuations decreases according to the Central Limit Theorem. It has been shown that a series of measurements of a nonspecific magnetic effect contains not only the usual scatter of data around the mean but also a significant random component in the mean itself. This random component indicates that measurements belong to different statistical populations, which requires special processing. This component, otherwise called heterogeneity, is an additional characteristic that is typically overlooked, and which reduces reproducibility. The current method for studying and summarizing highly heterogeneous data is the random-effect meta-analysis of absolute values, i.e., of magnitudes, rather than the values themselves. However, this estimator-the average of absolute values-has a significant positive bias when it comes to the small effects that are characteristic of magnetobiology. To solve this problem, an improved estimator based on the folded normal distribution that gives several times less bias is proposed. We used this improved estimator to analyze the nonspecific effect of the hypomagnetic field in the Stroop test in 40 subjects and found a statistically significant meta-effect with a standardized average of magnitudes of about 0.1. It has been shown that the proposed approach can also be applied to a single study. © 2021 Bioelectromagnetics Society.

Effects Induced by a Weak Static Magnetic Field of Different Intensities on HT-1080 Fibrosarcoma Cells

In this study, we investigated the effects of weak static magnetic fields (SMFs) on HT-1080 human fibrosarcoma cells. Exposures to SMFs for four consecutive days were varied from 0.5 to 600 µT for treated units, while exposures to control units were held at 45 µT. Growth rates were measured by comparing cell counts, whereas membrane potentials, mitochondrial calcium, mitochondrial superoxide (O₂ ^- ), nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen peroxide (H₂ O₂ ), intercellular pH, and oxidative stress were measured by using fluorescent dyes. The relative cell growth rates vary with the angle of the SMFs. Increases in the magnitude of the SMFs increased concentrations of mitochondrial calcium and membrane potential and decreased intracellular pH. H₂ O₂ , an important reactive oxygen species (ROS), increases at 100 and 200 µT, decreases at 300 and 400 µT and increases again at 500 and 600 µT. Overall, oxidative stress increases slightly with increasing SMFs, while superoxide and NO concentrations decrease. These results indicate that weak SMFs can accelerate and inhibit cell growth rates and induce alterations in ROS. Changes in ROS and oxidative stress are important for various cell functions. Calcium influx into mitochondria was one of the initial steps into the corresponding changes. Bioelectromagnetics. 2021. © 2021 Bioelectromagnetics Society.