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Khan S, Huang Y, Timuçin D, Bailey S, Lee S, Lopes J, Gaunce E, Mosberger J, Zhan M, Abdelrahman B, Zeng X, Wiest MC. Microtubule-Stabilizer Epothilone B Delays Anesthetic-Induced Unconsciousness in Rats. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0291-24.2024. [PMID: 39147581 PMCID: PMC11363512 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0291-24.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2024] [Revised: 08/08/2024] [Accepted: 08/09/2024] [Indexed: 08/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Volatile anesthetics are currently believed to cause unconsciousness by acting on one or more molecular targets including neural ion channels, receptors, mitochondria, synaptic proteins, and cytoskeletal proteins. Anesthetic gases including isoflurane bind to cytoskeletal microtubules (MTs) and dampen their quantum optical effects, potentially contributing to causing unconsciousness. This possibility is supported by the finding that taxane chemotherapy consisting of MT-stabilizing drugs reduces the effectiveness of anesthesia during surgery in human cancer patients. In order to experimentally assess the contribution of MTs as functionally relevant targets of volatile anesthetics, we measured latencies to loss of righting reflex (LORR) under 4% isoflurane in male rats injected subcutaneously with vehicle or 0.75 mg/kg of the brain-penetrant MT-stabilizing drug epothilone B (epoB). EpoB-treated rats took an average of 69 s longer to become unconscious as measured by latency to LORR. This was a statistically significant difference corresponding to a standardized mean difference (Cohen's d) of 1.9, indicating a "large" normalized effect size. The effect could not be accounted for by tolerance from repeated exposure to isoflurane. Our results suggest that binding of the anesthetic gas isoflurane to MTs causes unconsciousness and loss of purposeful behavior in rats (and presumably humans and other animals). This finding is predicted by models that posit consciousness as a property of a quantum physical state of neural MTs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sana Khan
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Yixiang Huang
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Derin Timuçin
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Shantelle Bailey
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Sophia Lee
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Jessica Lopes
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Emeline Gaunce
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Jasmine Mosberger
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Michelle Zhan
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | | | - Xiran Zeng
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
| | - Michael C Wiest
- Neuroscience Department, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 01760
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Neven H, Zalcman A, Read P, Kosik KS, van der Molen T, Bouwmeester D, Bodnia E, Turin L, Koch C. Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience. ENTROPY (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2024; 26:460. [PMID: 38920469 PMCID: PMC11203236 DOI: 10.3390/e26060460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2024] [Revised: 05/21/2024] [Accepted: 05/22/2024] [Indexed: 06/27/2024]
Abstract
The question of what generates conscious experience has mesmerized thinkers since the dawn of humanity, yet its origins remain a mystery. The topic of consciousness has gained traction in recent years, thanks to the development of large language models that now arguably pass the Turing test, an operational test for intelligence. However, intelligence and consciousness are not related in obvious ways, as anyone who suffers from a bad toothache can attest-pain generates intense feelings and absorbs all our conscious awareness, yet nothing particularly intelligent is going on. In the hard sciences, this topic is frequently met with skepticism because, to date, no protocol to measure the content or intensity of conscious experiences in an observer-independent manner has been agreed upon. Here, we present a novel proposal: Conscious experience arises whenever a quantum mechanical superposition forms. Our proposal has several implications: First, it suggests that the structure of the superposition determines the qualia of the experience. Second, quantum entanglement naturally solves the binding problem, ensuring the unity of phenomenal experience. Finally, a moment of agency may coincide with the formation of a superposition state. We outline a research program to experimentally test our conjecture via a sequence of quantum biology experiments. Applying these ideas opens up the possibility of expanding human conscious experience through brain-quantum computer interfaces.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Peter Read
- Read Family Foundation, Penn HP10 8LL, UK
| | - Kenneth S. Kosik
- Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; (K.S.K.); (T.v.d.M.)
| | - Tjitse van der Molen
- Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; (K.S.K.); (T.v.d.M.)
| | - Dirk Bouwmeester
- Department of Physics, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; (D.B.); (E.B.)
- Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, 2311 EZ Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Eve Bodnia
- Department of Physics, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA; (D.B.); (E.B.)
| | - Luca Turin
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences|Biomedical Research, University of Buckingham, Buckingham MK18 1EG, UK;
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Microtubules as a potential platform for energy transfer in biological systems: a target for implementing individualized, dynamic variability patterns to improve organ function. Mol Cell Biochem 2023; 478:375-392. [PMID: 35829870 DOI: 10.1007/s11010-022-04513-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Variability characterizes the complexity of biological systems and is essential for their function. Microtubules (MTs) play a role in structural integrity, cell motility, material transport, and force generation during mitosis, and dynamic instability exemplifies the variability in the proper function of MTs. MTs are a platform for energy transfer in cells. The dynamic instability of MTs manifests itself by the coexistence of growth and shortening, or polymerization and depolymerization. It results from a balance between attractive and repulsive forces between tubulin dimers. The paper reviews the current data on MTs and their potential roles as energy-transfer cellular structures and presents how variability can improve the function of biological systems in an individualized manner. The paper presents the option for targeting MTs to trigger dynamic improvement in cell plasticity, regulate energy transfer, and possibly control quantum effects in biological systems. The described system quantifies MT-dependent variability patterns combined with additional personalized signatures to improve organ function in a subject-tailored manner. The platform can regulate the use of MT-targeting drugs to improve the response to chronic therapies. Ongoing trials test the effects of this platform on various disorders.
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Baluška F, Reber AS. CBC-Clock Theory of Life - Integration of cellular circadian clocks and cellular sentience is essential for cognitive basis of life. Bioessays 2021; 43:e2100121. [PMID: 34382225 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202100121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2021] [Revised: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Cellular circadian clocks represent ancient anticipatory systems which co-evolved with the first cells to safeguard their survival. Cyanobacteria represent one of the most ancient cells, having essentially invented photosynthesis together with redox-based cellular circadian clocks some 2.7 billion years ago. Bioelectricity phenomena, based on redox homeostasis associated electron transfers in membranes and within protein complexes inserted in excitable membranes, play important roles, not only in the cellular circadian clocks and in anesthetics-sensitive cellular sentience (awareness of environment), but also in the coupling of single cells into tissues and organs of unitary multicellular organisms. This integration of cellular circadian clocks with cellular basis of sentience is an essential feature of the cognitive CBC-Clock basis of cellular life.
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Affiliation(s)
- František Baluška
- Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Arthur S Reber
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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Burdick RK, Villabona-Monsalve JP, Mashour GA, Goodson T. Modern Anesthetic Ethers Demonstrate Quantum Interactions with Entangled Photons. Sci Rep 2019; 9:11351. [PMID: 31383882 PMCID: PMC6683176 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-47651-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Accepted: 07/08/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite decades of research, the mechanism of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness remains incompletely understood, with some advocating for a quantum mechanical basis. Despite associations between general anesthesia and changes in physical properties such as electron spin, there has been no empirical demonstration that general anesthetics are capable of functional quantum interactions. In this work, we studied the linear and non-linear optical properties of the halogenated ethers sevoflurane (SEVO) and isoflurane (ISO), using UV-Vis spectroscopy, time dependent-density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations, classical two-photon spectroscopy, and entangled two-photon spectroscopy. We show that both of these halogenated ethers interact with pairs of 800 nm entangled photons while neither interact with 800 nm classical photons. By contrast, nonhalogenated diethyl ether does not interact with entangled photons. This is the first experimental evidence that halogenated anesthetics can directly undergo quantum interaction mechanisms, offering a new approach to understanding their physicochemical properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan K Burdick
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA
| | | | - George A Mashour
- Center for Consciousness Science, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5048, USA.
| | - Theodore Goodson
- Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
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