Towards predicting intracellular radiofrequency radiation effects

Impact of weak radiofrequency and static magnetic fields on key signaling molecules, intracellular pH, membrane potential, and cell growth in HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cells

There are substantial concerns that extended exposures to weak radiofrequency (RF) fields can lead to adverse health effects. In this study, HT-1080 fibrosarcoma cells were simultaneously exposed to a static magnetic flux density between 10 [Formula: see text] and 300 [Formula: see text] and RF magnetic fields with amplitudes ranging from 1 nT to 1.5 μT in the frequency range from 1.8 to 7.2 MHz for four days. Cell growth rates, intracellular pH, hydrogen peroxide, peroxynitrite, membrane potential and mitochondrial calcium were measured. Results were dependent on carrier frequency and the magnitude of the RF magnetic field, modulation frequencies and the background static magnetic field (SMF). Iron sulphur (Fe-S) clusters are essential for the generation of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species (ROS and RNS). We believe the observed changes are associated with hyperfine couplings between the chemically active electrons and nuclear spins. Controlling external magnetic fields may have important clinical implications on aging, cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer's.

Evaluation of DNA Methylation Profiles of LINE-1, Alu and Ribosomal DNA Repeats in Human Cell Lines Exposed to Radiofrequency Radiation

A large body of evidence indicates that environmental agents can induce alterations in DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles. Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) are radiations emitted by everyday devices, which have been classified as "possibly carcinogenic"; however, their biological effects are unclear. As aberrant DNAm of genomic repetitive elements (REs) may promote genomic instability, here, we sought to determine whether exposure to RF-EMFs could affect DNAm of different classes of REs, such as long interspersed nuclear elements-1 (LINE-1), Alu short interspersed nuclear elements and ribosomal repeats. To this purpose, we analysed DNAm profiles of cervical cancer and neuroblastoma cell lines (HeLa, BE(2)C and SH-SY5Y) exposed to 900 MHz GSM-modulated RF-EMF through an Illumina-based targeted deep bisulfite sequencing approach. Our findings showed that radiofrequency exposure did not affect the DNAm of Alu elements in any of the cell lines analysed. Conversely, it influenced DNAm of LINE-1 and ribosomal repeats in terms of both average profiles and organisation of methylated and unmethylated CpG sites, in different ways in each of the three cell lines studied.

Introducing VIKING: A Novel Online Platform for Multiscale Modeling

Various biochemical and biophysical processes, occurring on multiple time and length scales, can nowadays be studied using specialized software packages on supercomputer clusters. The complexity of such simulations often requires application of different methods in a single study and strong computational expertise. We have developed VIKING, a convenient web platform for carrying out multiscale computations on supercomputers. VIKING allows combining methods in standardized workflows, making complex simulations accessible to a broader biochemical and biophysical society.

Molecular Oxygen Binding in the Mitochondrial Electron Transfer Flavoprotein

Reactive oxygen species such as superoxide are potentially harmful byproducts of the aerobic metabolism in the inner mitochondrial membrane, and complexes I, II, III of the electron transport chain have been identified as primary sources. The mitochondrial fatty acid b-oxidation pathway may also play a yet uncharacterized role in reactive oxygen species generation, apparently at the level of the electron transfer flavoprotein:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF:QO) and/or its redox partner electron-transfer flavoprotein (ETF). These enzymes comprise a key pathway through which electrons are sequentially shuttled from several dehydrogenases to the respiratory chain. The exact mechanisms of superoxide production have not been fully established, but a crucial starting point would be the binding of molecular oxygen within one of the protein complexes. The present investigation offers a comprehensive computational approach for the determination of binding modes and characteristic binding times of small molecules inside proteins, which is then used to reveal several O₂ binding sites near the flavin adenine dinucleotide cofactor of the ETF enzyme. The binding sites are further characterized to extract the necessary parameters for further studies of possible electron transfer between flavin and O₂ leading to radical pair formation and possible superoxide production.