Ionic Currents: The Spark of Life the Directional Force for Cellular Metabolism & Energetics

The aging process cannot be conceptualized by examining a single gene or a single pathway, but can best be addressed at the systems level. Aging is not only the sum total of shortened telomeres, denatured1 proteins and DNA molecules, or oxidative damage in the mitochondria. It attacks key regulatory nodes crucial for the stability of the biological network. Aging is the dynamic process of increasing imbalances in the organism as a result of degenerating biological processes.

The old, the ill, and the injured all suffer from disarranged patterns of atoms. A single substitution an A for a G in a DNA molecule can cause a significant change in the conductance of the molecule leading to cancer. Shaklin et al (2008) recently reported that a single substitution in the amino acid sequence of an enzyme changed its function into that of a theoretical distant ancestor. “It's as if we turned back the clock nearly 2.5 billion years, to the time when oxygen first appeared in Earth's atmosphere, to get a snapshot of how enzymes evolved to deal with reactive oxygen species,” said Shanklin, biochemist in the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Such research findings demonstrate how the sequence and interrelations of amino acids in a protein, or the sequence of base pairs in a DNA molecule can become determining factors between health and disease, aging and youth. Research has shown that gene expression is stronger when the gene is attached to the nuclear envelope (the membrane that surrounds the nucleus) than when the gene moves away from the nuclear envelope (Taddei et al, 2008). In other words, cells make use of the nuclear architecture or spatial organization of the nucleus to code epigenetic information. The DNA sequence alone doesn't determine everything.

The importance of nuclear architecture in regulating gene expression begs for scientific observation that goes beyond the study of atoms and molecules, i.e. the organism's components. It is imperative that research focuses on the interrelations, sequence, orientation and spatial organization of an organism's atoms and molecules, i.e. the dynamic processes that characterize
the organism's vital functions and survival. Electrical charge is a dynamic entity emerging from opposites such as protons and electrons attracting each other.

How is electricity related to biological processes? Recent research has shown that DNA, proteins and cells, including stem cells, appear to be electrical in that they demonstrate conductivity or the presence if ionic currents (Li et al, 2008; Brown et al 2008). ATP synthesis, the primary source of cellular energy depends upon the driving source of electrons and protons. Given the required amount of electrons, free radicals (molecules with a missing electron) can be instantly stabilized. Many clinically used drugs such as calcium channel blockers and anaesthetics interact specifically with ion channels. Many major pharmaceutical companies are showing increasing interest in
ion channels as a new drug target. (Young et al, 2001). Yet, very little research has been invested in decoding endogenous electrical signals to investigate the possibility of a “central control biological waveform” emerging out of molecular activity, like music flowing out of a Jazz band. It is possible to electronically resonate such “master physiological energy” as pioneer Pollock (1988-2008) has recently done in his lab by composing a pure analog multi-sine waveform. Such
pure analog waveform may act as a reparative force in itself, as well as an electronic diplomat to awaken the activation of biological reparative mechanisms involved in extended longevity.

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