Bacterial biophotons as non-local information carriers: Species-specific spectral characteristics of a stress response

Photophysical Mechanisms of Photobiomodulation Therapy as Precision Medicine

Despite a significant focus on the photochemical and photoelectrical mechanisms underlying photobiomodulation (PBM), its complex functions are yet to be fully elucidated. To date, there has been limited attention to the photophysical aspects of PBM. One effect of photobiomodulation relates to the non-visual phototransduction pathway, which involves mechanotransduction and modulation to cytoskeletal structures, biophotonic signaling, and micro-oscillatory cellular interactions. Herein, we propose a number of mechanisms of PBM that do not depend on cytochrome c oxidase. These include the photophysical aspects of PBM and the interactions with biophotons and mechanotransductive processes. These hypotheses are contingent on the effect of light on ion channels and the cytoskeleton, the production of biophotons, and the properties of light and biological molecules. Specifically, the processes we review are supported by the resonant recognition model (RRM). This previous research demonstrated that protein micro-oscillations act as a signature of their function that can be activated by resonant wavelengths of light. We extend this work by exploring the local oscillatory interactions of proteins and light because they may affect global body circuits and could explain the observed effect of PBM on neuro-cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) oscillations. In particular, since dysrhythmic gamma oscillations are associated with neurodegenerative diseases and pain syndromes, including migraine with aura and fibromyalgia, we suggest that transcranial PBM should target diseases where patients are affected by impaired neural oscillations and aberrant brain wave patterns. This review also highlights examples of disorders potentially treatable with precise wavelengths of light by mimicking protein activity in other tissues, such as the liver, with, for example, Crigler-Najjar syndrome and conditions involving the dysregulation of the cytoskeleton. PBM as a novel therapeutic modality may thus behave as "precision medicine" for the treatment of various neurological diseases and other morbidities. The perspectives presented herein offer a new understanding of the photophysical effects of PBM, which is important when considering the relevance of PBM therapy (PBMt) in clinical applications, including the treatment of diseases and the optimization of health outcomes and performance.

Crucial Development: Criticality Is Important to Cell-to-Cell Communication and Information Transfer in Living Systems

In the fourth paper of this Special Issue, we bridge the theoretical debate on the role of memory and criticality discussed in the three earlier manuscripts, with a review of key concepts in biology and focus on cell-to-cell communication in organismal development. While all living organisms are dynamic complex networks of organization and disorder, most studies in biology have used energy and biochemical exchange to explain cell differentiation without considering the importance of information (entropy) transfer. While all complex networks are mixtures of patterns of complexity (non-crucial and crucial events), it is the crucial events that determine the efficiency of information transfer, especially during key transitions, such as in embryogenesis. With increasing multicellularity, emergent relationships from cell-to-cell communication create reaction-diffusion exchanges of different concentrations of biochemicals or morphogenetic gradients resulting in differential gene expression. We suggest that in conjunction with morphogenetic gradients, there exist gradients of information transfer creating cybernetic loops of stability and disorder, setting the stage for adaptive capability. We specifically reference results from the second paper in this Special Issue, which correlated biophotons with lentil seed germination to show that phase transitions accompany changes in complexity patterns during development. Criticality, therefore, appears to be an important factor in the transmission, transfer and coding of information for complex adaptive system development.

Bacterial biophotons as non-local information carriers: Species-specific spectral characteristics of a stress response

Studies by Alexander Gurwitsch in the 1920' s with onion root cells revealed the phenomenon of mitogenetic radiation. Subsequent works by Popp, Van Wijk, Quickenden, Tillbury, and Trushin have demonstrated a link between Gurwitsch's mitogenetic radiation and the biophoton, emissions of light correlated with biological processes. The present study seeks to expand upon these and other works to explore whether biophoton emissions of bacterial cultures is used as an information carrier of environmental stress. Bacterial cultures (Escherichia coli and Serratia marcescens) were incubated for 24 hr in 5 ml of nutrient broth to stationary phase and cell densities of ~107 cells/mL. Cultures of E. coli were placed upon a photomultiplier tube housed within a dark box. A second bacterial culture, either E. coli or S. marcescens, was placed in an identical dark box at a distance of 5 m and received injections of hydrogen peroxide. Spectral analyses revealed significant differences in peak frequencies of 7.2, 10.1, and 24.9 Hz in the amplitude modulation of the emitted biophoton signal with respect to whether a peroxide injection occurred or not, and whether the species receiving the injection was E. coli or S. marcescens. These and the subsequent results of discriminant functions suggest that bacteria may release biophotons as a non-local communication system in response to stress, and that these biophotons are species specific.