Ultra weak photon emission—a brief review

Mould, Rhys R.; Mackenzie, Alasdair M.; Kalampouka, Ifigeneia; Nunn, Alistair V. W.; Thomas, E. Louise; Bell, Jimmy D.; Botchway, Stanley W.

doi:10.3389/fphys.2024.1348915

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 91 publications

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“…Life has also evolved to use light in ways that is not yet fully understood. For example, live mammalian and plant cells generate intrinsic photons, described as biophotons, ultraweak photon emission and metabolic photon emission 6 , 7 . These are thought to originate from metabolic process including significant proportion from the mitochondria, lipid peroxidation and radical reactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of NADH anisotropy to investigate mitochondrial cristae alignment

Smith,

Mackenzie,

Seddon

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Life may be expressed as the flow of electrons, protons, and other ions, resulting in large potential difference. It is also highly photo-sensitive, as a large proportion of the redox capable molecules it relies on are chromophoric. It is thus suggestive that a key organelle in eukaryotes, the mitochondrion, constantly adapt their morphology as part of the homeostatic process. Studying unstained in vivo nano-scale structure in live cells is technically very challenging. One option is to study a central electron carrier in metabolism, reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), which is fluorescent and mostly located within mitochondria. Using one and two-photon absorption (340–360 nm and 730 nm, respectively), fluorescence lifetime imaging and anisotropy spectroscopy of NADH in solution and in live cells, we show that mitochondria do indeed appear to be aligned and exhibit high anisotropy (asymmetric directionality). Aqueous solution of NADH showed an anisotropy of ~ 0.20 compared to fluorescein or coumarin of < 0.1 and 0.04 in water respectively and as expected for small organic molecules. The anisotropy of NADH also increased further to 0.30 in the presence of proteins and 0.42 in glycerol (restricted environment) following two-photon excitation, suggesting more ordered structures. Two-photon NADH fluorescence imaging of Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF7) also showed strong anisotropy of 0.25 to 0.45. NADH has a quantum yield of fluorescence of 2% compared to more than 40% for photoionisation (electron generation), when exposed to light at 360 nm and below. The consequence of such highly ordered and directional NADH patterns with respect to electron ejection upon ultra-violet (UV) excitation could be very informative—especially in relation to ascertaining the extent of quantum effects in biology, including electron and photonic cascade, communication and modulation of effects such as spin and tunnelling.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%