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

BMC Neuroscience

Review

Francesco Cappello¹  Jack A. Tuszynski²  Mark Rasenick³  Gustav Bernroider⁴  Chiara Minuto⁵  Lucio Tonello⁶  Fabio Gabrielli⁶  Massimo Cocchi⁷ 

[1] Department of Biomedicine and Neuroscience, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy;Euro-Mediterranean Institute of Science and Technology, Palermo, Italy;Department of Oncology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada;Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada;Department of Physiology & Biophysics and Psychiatry, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA;Jesse Brown VAMC, Chicago, IL, USA;Neurosignaling Unit, Department of Organismic Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria;UCC, University of Cork, Cork, Ireland;“Paolo Sotgiu” Institute for Research in Quantitative & Quantum Psychiatry & Cardiology, L.U.de.S. HEI, Malta, Switzerland;“Paolo Sotgiu” Institute for Research in Quantitative & Quantum Psychiatry & Cardiology, L.U.de.S. HEI, Malta, Switzerland;Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy;

关键词: Mood disorders;    Linoleic acid;    Ion channels;    Cytoskeleton;    Microtubule;    Lipid raft;    Depression;    Antidepressants;    Ising model;    Quantum states;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12868-017-0356-1

 received in 2017-01-19, accepted in 2017-04-12,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2017