Influence of magnetic fields on the hydration process of amino acids: Vibrational spectroscopy study of L‐phenylalanine and L‐glutamine

Abstract

Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy has been used to investigate the effect of weak electromagnetic fields on the structure of L-glutamine (L-Gln) and L-phenylalnine (L-Phe) in aqueous solution. It has been found that the exposure to a DC field or a 50 Hz AC field, for a short time induces modifications in the spectra of exposed samples in agreement with our preceding observations on glutamic acid. Furthermore, the acid-base equilibrium has been investigated by using the ratio of the intensity of the deprotonated on protonated species. In the case of L-Phe, the exposure induces a measurable shift of acid dissociation constant pKa1 out of the experimental errors, while in case of L-Gln, the effect is under the limit detectable with this method. The phenomenon of the shift of the acid-base equilibrium has been connected elsewhere to modification of the water-water hydrogen bonds in the water around both the backbone and the residue (R). Here we suggest that the magnetic field modifies the water structure around the molecules and changes the hydrophobic interactions allowing the molecules of amino acids to aggregate. The differences observed in the behavior of L-Phe and L-Gln may be related to the differences in the polarity of their residues.

Correlation between the Increasing Conductivity of Aqueous Solutions of Cation Chlorides with Time and the “Salting-Out” Properties of the Cations

“…Interestingly, our results show similarities with the observations based on the use of a magnetic field [26][27][28][29][30], which found that water and aqueous solutions can be magnetized and stay magnetized much longer than is generally accepted [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], although the magnetization effect is very weak. Exposure to a magnetic field induces changes in some of the properties of water or aqueous solutions, including surface tension [31], optical features [32], an increase in the vaporization rate [30,33], the melting point [34] and the electrical conductivity [30] compared with those of untreated aqueous solutions.…”

Global gene expression changes reflecting pleiotropic effects of Irpex lacteus induced by low‐­intensity electromagnetic field

“…More strikingly, the LI‐EMF treatment induced 38 DEGs in the amino acid biosynthesis and metabolic pathway (ko01230) and increased the total content of amino acids with a considerable increase in the content of eight essential amino acids. De‐Ninno and Congiu‐Castellano [] found that the MF affected the hydration process of amino acids. This provided another hint that LI‐EMF could be used to increase the amino acid content in amino acid‐producing bacteria or fungi.…”

Terahertz spectroscopic detection of amino acid molecules under magnetic field

“…When the magnetic field strength increases, the number of hydrogen bonds increases. On the other hand, DeNinno [ 23 ] et al. found that in the presence of a magnetic field, amino acid molecules aggregate, increasing the radius of their molecular clusters and blocking the transmission of THz waves.…”

“…If amino acids can be used for targeted therapy, it will be a new breakthrough in medical treatment. In 2014, DeNinno [ 23 ] et al. investigated the effect of magnetic fields on the hydration of two solutions of amino acids with different pH values.…”