Effects of ELF-EMF on brain proteins in mice

Biological Effects of Magnetic Storms and ELF Magnetic Fields

Magnetic fields are a constant and essential part of our environment. The main components of ambient magnetic fields are the constant part of the geomagnetic field, its fluctuations caused by magnetic storms, and man-made magnetic fields. These fields refer to extremely-low-frequency (<1 kHz) magnetic fields (ELF-MFs). Since the 1980s, a huge amount of data has been accumulated on the biological effects of magnetic fields, in particular ELF-MFs. However, a unified picture of the patterns of action of magnetic fields has not been formed. Even though a unified mechanism has not yet been generally accepted, several theories have been proposed. In this review, we attempted to take a new approach to analyzing the quantitative data on the effects of ELF-MFs to identify new potential areas for research. This review provides general descriptions of the main effects of magnetic storms and anthropogenic fields on living organisms (molecular-cellular level and whole organism) and a brief description of the main mechanisms of magnetic field effects on living organisms. This review may be of interest to specialists in the fields of biology, physics, medicine, and other interdisciplinary areas.

Method for noninvasive whole-body stimulation with spinning oscillating magnetic fields and its safety in mice

We recently reported shrinkage of untreatable recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) in an end-stage patient using noninvasive brain stimulation with a spinning oscillating magnetic field (sOMF)-generating device called the Oncomagnetic device. Our in vitro experiments demonstrated selective cancer cell death while sparing normal cells by sOMF-induced increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels due to magnetic perturbation of mitochondrial electron transport. Here, we describe the results of an in vivo study assessing the toxicity of chronic sOMF stimulation in mice using a newly constructed apparatus comprised of the sOMF-generating active components of the Oncomagnetic device. We chronically stimulated 10 normal 60-day old female C57BL/6 mice in their housing cages for 2 h 3 times a day, as in the patient treatment protocol, over 4 months. We also studied the effects of 2-h acute sOMF stimulation. Our observations and those of blinded independent veterinary staff observers, indicated no significant adverse effects of chronic or acute sOMF stimulation on the health, behavior, electrocardiographic and electroencephalographic activities, hematologic profile, and brain and other tissue and organ morphology of treated mice compared to age-matched untreated control mice. These findings suggest that short- and long-term therapies with the Oncomagnetic device are safe and well tolerated.

Antitumor effects of the electromagnetic resonant frequencies derived from the 1H NMR spectrum of Ph3Sn(Mercaptonicotinic)SnPh3 complex

The aim of this article is to investigate the potential cytotoxic and antitumor effects of the resonant electromagnetic fields (rEMFs) derived from the ¹H NMR spectrum of the Ph₃Sn(Mercaptonicotinic)SnPh₃ complex (SnMNA). The ability of the complex's rEMFs to induce leiomyosarcoma (LMS) cell death and to recess tumor (leiomyosarcoma) development in Wistar rats was evaluated. The effects of the simultaneous administration of the SnMNA complex at extremely low concentrations and exposure to its rEMFs was also investigated. The emission of the ¹H NMR spectrum of the complex alone or in a combination with low ineffective doses of the complex decreased LMS cell viability mainly through apoptosis. Moreover, the results from the in vivo experiments showed a significant prolongation of life expectancy in tumor-bearing rats exposed to the rEMFs alongside a deceleration in tumor growth rate. We speculate that the rEMFs of a biologically active substance could exert similar biological effects as the substance itself, mainly when is combined with extremely low ineffective concentrations of the substance.

On the nature and shape of tubulin trails: implications on microtubule self-organization

Microtubules, major elements of the cell skeleton are, most of the time, well organized in vivo, but they can also show self-organizing behaviors in time and/or space in purified solutions in vitro. Theoretical studies and models based on the concepts of collective dynamics in complex systems, reaction-diffusion processes and emergent phenomena were proposed to explain some of these behaviors. In the particular case of microtubule spatial self-organization, it has been advanced that microtubules could behave like ants, self-organizing by 'talking to each other' by way of hypothetic (because never observed) concentrated chemical trails of tubulin that are expected to be released by their disassembling ends. Deterministic models based on this idea yielded indeed like-looking spatio-temporal self-organizing behaviors. Nevertheless the question remains of whether microscopic tubulin trails produced by individual or bundles of several microtubules are intense enough to allow microtubule self-organization at a macroscopic level. In the present work, by simulating the diffusion of tubulin in microtubule solutions at the microscopic scale, we measure the shape and intensity of tubulin trails and discuss about the assumption of microtubule self-organization due to the production of chemical trails by disassembling microtubules. We show that the tubulin trails produced by individual microtubules or small microtubule arrays are very weak and not elongated even at very high reactive rates. Although the variations of concentration due to such trails are not significant compared to natural fluctuations of the concentration of tubuline in the chemical environment, the study shows that heterogeneities of biochemical composition can form due to microtubule disassembly. They could become significant when produced by numerous microtubule ends located in the same place. Their possible formation could play a role in certain conditions of reaction. In particular, it gives a mesoscopic basis to explain the collective dynamics observed in excitable microtubule solutions showing the propagation of concentration waves of microtubules at the millimeter scale, although we doubt that individual microtubules or bundles can behave like molecular ants.

Extremely-low frequency magnetic field effects on sulfate reducing bacteria viability

50 Hz magnetic fields effects on Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) viability were studied by colony forming units (CFU) counting. We found a 15% decrease of CFU number after magnetic field exposure (B=7.1 mT, f=50 Hz, t=24 min) compared to the control samples. These results are in good agreement with our previous work on other bacterial strains. The magnetic field effects on SRB are relatively large for small magnetic fields. The data correlations have been subjected to a simple physical chemical analysis, yielding surprisingly large estimates for the characteristic magnetic reaction susceptibility, even when the entire bacterium is assumed to be the direct target of interaction of the magnetic ac fields for the exposures in the time range from 3-24  min.

Effect of 60 Hz magnetic fields on the activation of hsp70 promoter in cultured INER-37 and RMA E7 cells

It has been reported that 50-60 Hz magnetic fields (MF) with flux densities ranging from microtesla to millitesla are able to induce heat shock factor or heat shock proteins in various cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of 60 Hz sinusoidal MF at 8 and 80 μT on the expression of the luciferase gene contained in a plasmid labeled as electromagnetic field-plasmid (pEMF). This gene construct contains the specific sequences previously described for the induction of hsp70 expression by MF, as well as the reporter for the luciferase gene. The pEMF vector was transfected into INER-37 and RMA E7 cell lines that were later exposed to either MF or thermal shock (TS). Cells that received the MF or TS treatments and their controls were processed according to the luciferase assay system for evaluate luciferase activity. An increased luciferase gene expression was observed in INER-37 cells exposed to MF and TS compared with controls (p < 0.05), but MF exposure had no effect on the RMA E7 cell line.