1. Chemiexcitation and Its Implications for Disease.
- Author
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Brash DE, Goncalves LCP, and Bechara EJH
- Subjects
- Animals, Humans, Biochemical Phenomena, Disease Susceptibility
- Abstract
Quantum mechanics rarely extends to molecular medicine. Recently, the pigment melanin was found to be susceptible to chemiexcitation, in which an electron is chemically excited to a high-energy molecular orbital. In invertebrates, chemiexcitation causes bioluminescence; in mammals, a higher-energy process involving melanin transfers energy to DNA without photons, creating the lethal and mutagenic cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer that can cause melanoma. This process is initiated by NO and O
2 - radicals, the formation of which can be triggered by ultraviolet light or inflammation. Several chronic diseases share two properties: inflammation generates these radicals across the tissue, and the diseased cells lie near melanin. We propose that chemiexcitation may be an upstream event in numerous human diseases., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2018
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