A Quantum Mechanical Model for Bioelectromagnetic Resonance Phenomena

Interaction between weak low frequency magnetic fields and cell membranes

The question of whether very weak low frequency magnetic fields can affect biological systems, has attracted attention by many research groups for quite some time. Still, today, the theoretical possibility of such an interaction is often questioned and the site of interaction in the cell is unknown. In the present study, the influence of extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields on the transport of Ca(2+) was studied in a biological system consisting of highly purified plasma membrane vesicles. We tested two quantum mechanical theoretical models that assume that biologically active ions can be bound to a channel protein and influence the opening state of the channel. Vesicles were exposed for 30 min at 32 degrees C and the calcium efflux was studied using radioactive (45)Ca as a tracer. Static magnetic fields ranging from 27 to 37 micro T and time varying magnetic fields with frequencies between 7 and 72 Hz and amplitudes between 13 and 114 micro T (peak) were used. We show that suitable combinations of static and time varying magnetic fields directly interact with the Ca(2+) channel protein in the cell membrane, and we could quantitatively confirm the model proposed by Blanchard.

Lorentz approach to static magnetic field effects on bound-ion dynamics and binding kinetics: thermal noise considerations

The present study characterizes an ion-binding site, a molecular cleft in a signalling molecule such as calmodulin or troponin C, as a damped linear isotropic oscillator potential for small displacements about the origin. Quantitative assessments of the effects of thermal noise and exogenous static magnetic fields are made through a statistical mechanical treatment of the Lorentz-Langevin equation for an ion bound in a molecular cleft. Thermal noise causes a bound ion to be ejected from the site after a bound lifetime dependent upon the thermal noise spectral density. It is shown that the Lorentz-Langevin model requires values of the viscous damping parameter many orders of magnitude below those for bulk water in order to characterize the binding site and to obtain realistic lifetimes for a bound ion. The model predicts that milliTesla-range magnetic fields are required for static field effects on dissociation kinetics. The Lorentz equation also yields a classic coherent solution describing precession of the bound-ion oscillator orientation at the Larmor frequency. The bound-ion dynamics described by this coherent solution are sensitive to microTesla-range static magnetic fields in the presence of thermal noise. Numerical integration of the contribution of thermal noise forces to these dynamics is in good agreement with the results of statistical mechanical analysis, also producing realistic bound lifetimes for only very low viscous damping values. The mechanisms by which modulation of precessional motion might enable a signalling molecule such as calmodulin to detect an exogenous magnetic field are presently unclear.