Gustav Bernroider

A quantum-mechanical description of ion motion within the confining potentials of voltage-gated ion channels

Voltage-gated channel proteins cooperate in the transmission of membrane potentials between nerve cells. With the recent progress in atomic-scaled biological chemistry, it has now become established that these channel proteins provide highly correlated atomic environments that may maintain electronic coherences even at warm temperatures. Here we demonstrate solutions of the Schrödinger equation that represent the interaction of a single potassium ion within the surrounding carbonyl dipoles in the Berneche-Roux model of the bacterial KcsA model channel. We show that, depending on the surrounding carbonyl-derived potentials, alkali ions can become highly delocalized in the filter region of proteins at warm temperatures. We provide estimations on the temporal evolution of the kinetic energy of ions depending on their interaction with other ions, their location within the oxygen cage of the proteins filter region, and depending on different oscillation frequencies of the surrounding carbonyl groups. Our results provide the first evidence that quantum mechanical properties are needed to explain a fundamental biological property such as ion selectivity in transmembrane ion currents and the effect on gating kinetics and shaping of classical conductances in electrically excitable cells.

Plausibility of quantum coherent states in biological systems

In this paper we briefly discuss the necessity of using quantum mechanics as a fundamental theory applicable to some key functional aspects of biological systems. This is especially relevant to three important parts of a neuron in the human brain, namely the cell membrane, microtubules (MT) and ion channels. We argue that the recently published papers criticizing the use of quantum theory in these systems are not convincing.

Neuronal stem cells in adults

Neuronal stem cells are like other tissue-specific stem cells, undifferentiated cells which can proliferate and may give rise to glia and neurons. They are present in mammalians throughout the entire life and are supposed to play an important role in renewal of neurons. However, little is known about the origin, phenotypic expression and function of neuronal stem cells in the adult brain. In the present review the occurrence and origin of neuronal stem cells as well as specific markers, which allow their identification in the brain is being described. Finally the role of these cells in the adult brain and their potential use in neuropathy is discussed.

Can Quantum Entanglement Between Ion Transition States Effect Action Potential Initiation

The involvement of atomic determinants in molecular models underlying ion-conducting proteins suggests a revisitation of classical concepts that are based on rate-theory models (e.g. ‘gating’ particles) and bulk solvation concepts. Here, we investigate possible effects of a quantum correlation regime within ion-conducting molecules (voltage gated ion channels) on the onset dynamics of propagating voltage pulses (action potentials, APs). In particular, we focus on the initiation characteristics of action potentials, (API). We model the classical onset parameters of the sodium current in the Hodgkin–Huxley equation as three similar but independent probabilistic mechanisms that can become quantum correlated. The underlying physics is general and can involve entanglement between various degrees of freedom underlying ion transition states or ‘gating states’ during conduction, for example, Na+ ions in different channel locations, or different coordination states of ions with atoms lining sub-regions of the protein (‘filter-states’). We find that the resulting semi-classical version of the Hodgkin–Huxley equation, incorporating entangled sodium channel system states, can either enhance or slow down the rise in membrane potentials at the time of signal initiation. As in principle a single sodium channel can drive the membrane to an AP threshold, we suggest that the observed effects of a semi quantum-classical signal description point to a self-amplification of Na+ channels and may be due to quantum interferences within the atomic environment of channel atoms. If inserted into canonical generators of AP signals, the suggested quantum term can further enhance signal onset-rapidness, an aspect that has recently been observed in real cortical neurons and that seems to be inevitable for the encoding of high-frequency input.

Linoleic acid: Is this the key that unlocks the quantum brain? Insights linking broken symmetries in molecular biology, mood disorders and personalistic emergentism

In this paper we present a mechanistic model that integrates subneuronal structures, namely ion channels, membrane fatty acids, lipid rafts, G proteins and the cytoskeleton in a dynamic system that is finely tuned in a healthy brain. We also argue that subtle changes in the composition of the membrane’s fatty acids may lead to down-stream effects causing dysregulation of the membrane, cytoskeleton and their interface. Such exquisite sensitivity to minor changes is known to occur in physical systems undergoing phase transitions, the simplest and most studied of them is the so-called Ising model, which exhibits a phase transition at a finite temperature between an ordered and disordered state in 2- or 3-dimensional space. We propose this model in the context of neuronal dynamics and further hypothesize that it may involve quantum degrees of freedom dependent upon variation in membrane domains associated with ion channels or microtubules. Finally, we provide a link between these physical characteristics of the dynamical mechanism to psychiatric disorders such as major depression and antidepressant action.

Quantum Dynamics and Non-Local Effects Behind Ion Transition States during Permeation in Membrane Channel Proteins

We present a comparison of a classical and a quantum mechanical calculation of the motion of K+ ions in the highly conserved KcsA selectivity filter motive of voltage gated ion channels. We first show that the de Broglie wavelength of thermal ions is not much smaller than the periodic structure of Coulomb potentials in the nano-pore model of the selectivity filter. This implies that an ion may no longer be viewed to be at one exact position at a given time but can better be described by a quantum mechanical wave function. Based on first principle methods, we demonstrate solutions of a non-linear Schrödinger model that provide insight into the role of short-lived (~1 ps) coherent ion transition states and attribute an important role to subsequent decoherence and the associated quantum to classical transition for permeating ions. It is found that short coherences are not just beneficial but also necessary to explain the fast-directed permeation of ions through the potential barriers of the filter. Certain aspects of quantum dynamics and non-local effects appear to be indispensable to resolve the discrepancy between potential barrier height, as reported from classical thermodynamics, and experimentally observed transition rates of ions through channel proteins.

Subjective reality and brain topology: Inversion transformations on non-orientable atomic surfaces of membrane channels

Subject-object relations reflect the relation of phenomenology and physics and are at the centre of interest in brain research and neuro-psychology. The unresolved dichotomy behind this relation is one of the most challenging questions of our time. Setting out from causal modelling I suggest a particular topology for subject-object relations and argue that we can find a physical realization in living organism that provides a continuous transform between both domains. In a geometrical metaphor this transform has the topological properties of a one-sided surface or non-orientable flat. I argue that such a surface can be found within the electronic organization of atomic linings in the filter region of ion-conducting membrane proteins. Electron transfer along these atomic surfaces makes chiral induced spin changes to a promising signature of subject-object relations and has found experimental evidence in previous studies. I finally advocate the view that there is a basic dualism between subject and object which is physical on both sides and realized by an inversion relation along one-sided surfaces. The transition between these two aspects however is non-physical and hosts the phenomenology that characterizes subjectivity.

Document of Trapani on animal consciousness and quantum brain function: A hypothesis

Massimo Cocchi a,∗, G. Bernroider b, Mark Rasenick c, Lucio Tonello a, Fabio Gabrielli d and Jack A. Tuszynski e a Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy b Neurosignaling Unit, University of Salzburg, Austria c Department of Physiology and Biophysics, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Jesse Brown VAMC, Chicago, IL, USA d Theological Faculty of Northern Italy, Italy e Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2J1, Canada

Computer - Based Image Analysis for Histochemistry

A large variety of imaging methods has been developed to address the location and quantification of signals emerging from a place coded distribution of biological activity. The key question addressed by all such techniques is the extraction of cellular or molecular attributes from image coded information. This requires multiple calibration steps that gradually associate biological attributes with images. In the following text, major requirements or calibration steps that must be met to infer physico-chemical aspects from the space-coded intensity distribution provided by images are outlined. Also included is a comparison between traditional transmission images from radiographic receptor binding and novel approaches using intrinsic emission tomographs from enzyme-labeled ligands. Another major point is that computer-assisted manipulations of images allow the construction of “coincident images” that can combine such diverse signals as low light emissions with high-level light transmission images. Demonstrative examples from neuro-imaging show that coincident images can provide multiple histochemical information in a global, yet spatially selective way.