Effect of dilute solutions of biologically active substances on cell membranes

• Published in: Biophysics (Oxford) 2014-09, Vol.59 (4), p.577-587
• Main Authors: Palmina, N. P., Maltseva, E. L., Chasovskaya, T. E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biological activity; Biological and Medical Physics; Biophysics; Cell Biophysics; Cellular biology; Membranes; Physics; Physics and Astronomy
• ISSN: 0006-3509; 1555-6654
• DOI: 10.1134/S0006350914040228

The article presents data on changes in physicochemical properties of different biological membranes (plasmatic, microsomal, synaptosomes) under the action of biologically active substances, which are different in their chemical structure and the mechanism of action (natural and synthetic antioxidants, thyrotropin - releasing hormone, phorbol esters), in the wide range of concentrations (10 −22 −10 −3 M). Dose dependences of the effect of biologically active substances on the activity of membrane-bound enzymes, lipid peroxidation, the structural state of the various regions of the lipid bilayer of membranes have been obtained and analyzed in terms of their formal generality of polymodality, number and position of the maxima, a sign change of the effect. An attempt to explain the mechanism of each of the observed peaks in these curves has been made. The maximum in the range of relatively high “physiological” concentrations (10 −3 –10 −7 M) is associated with introduction of biologically active substances into biomembranes. In this study maxima in the range of ultra-low doses (10 −11 –10 −16 M) and “apparent” concentrations (10 −18 M), where the presence of biologically active substance molecule in a reaction volume is probabilistic in nature, are explained by physicochemical properties of diluted biologically active substances solutions. This conclusion is based on our data on the changes in IR spectra of aqueous solutions of biologically active substances and the results obtained by academician A.I. Konovalov et al. concerning the physicochemical properties of dilute solutions of biologically active substances (conductivity, surface tension, charge), due to the formation of so-called “nanoassociates” from biologically active substance molecule and numerous number of water molecules. The nanoassociates formation and biological effect disappear if the low concentration solutions are kept in a special shielded permalloy container protecting its contents from external electromagnetic field. Thus, nanoassociates are the material carriers of the unique ability of the ultra-low doses of biologically active substances to exhibit biological effects.