The hot line

How do living cells react to cell phone radiation?

Prof. Roni Zager. transmitters and receivers
Like switchboards that manage and route telephone calls in the offices of large companies, living cells also operate a sort of "switchboard" that allows messages that arrive outside the cell to route their way to the cell's nucleus and various organelles. These centers are protein receptors located in cell membranes, so that one end of them faces outside the cell, while the other end penetrates into the cell. When the receptors receive "incoming calls", that is, when they recognize different molecules, such as growth factors, or hormones, or when they sense physical stimuli such as heat, they go into action and deliver the message to the recipient inside the cell. The cells respond to these messages by producing various proteins, which enable biological processes such as culture, differentiation, and even programmed cell death.
The transmission of the message, from the moment it is received until it is delivered to the recipient inside the cell, is a long and complex process. One of the steps in the process of transferring the message from the first station, the receptor, to the final station, was discovered by Prof. Roni Zager, from the Department of Biological Control at the Weizmann Institute of Science, while he was working as a post-doctoral researcher in the laboratory of Nobel laureate, Edwin Krebs, at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA "B. The intracellular communication pathways are based on a chain of five to eight components, each of which is a protein that receives the message from the protein in front of it and passes it on, as in a messenger race, to the next in line after it, where in most cases the target is the cell nucleus. The means of communication is phosphorus molecules attached to each protein whose turn it is to deliver the message.
In the mapping and sequencing project of the human genome, it became clear that in each given cell there are about 200
Such exchanges that receive hundreds of incoming calls at the various stages of the cell's life. Each call requires a unique response, but in the cell there are a total of about a dozen communication lines through which all these messages pass. How can such a small number of communication lines transmit different signals, carrying messages with so many unique contents?
Over the years, Prof. Zager was able to show that the ability of the communication systems in the cell to transmit unique messages is largely based on the branching of the main lines into secondary communication lines, just like the advanced voice response systems that are used in large companies ("For customer service, press 1. For management - 2. for deliveries - 3"). This work, which was done together with the post-doctoral researcher Dr. Yoav Shaul,
Recently published in the scientific journal Biochemical Journal.
Prof. Zager: "We studied a well-known communication pathway called ERK, and discovered that it has different 'extension numbers' called ERK1, ERK1b, ERK1c, ERK1d.
The question that immediately arose was: do these branches handle all the messages that pass through the main route (ERK) differently, or does each of them handle only the messages that are unique to it."
Further research revealed that, indeed, each of the "branches" handles only the messages that are unique to it. The ERK pathway is responsible, among other things, for cell division. During division, a mammalian cell must break one of its components - the Golgi system - into thousands of small fragments. These fragments are divided among the daughter cells (the new cells), and then they create, in each individual cell, new Golgi systems. Prof. Zager discovered that the teacher's message
For the cell to perform this process only passes
In a branch of the ERK communication pathway, called ERK1c, and that the main communication pathway, ERK1, does not participate in this process at all. it is possible
Presumably, such uniqueness also exists in other sub-branches of the intracellular communication pathways.
Understanding these processes today helps researchers to understand the causes of communication breakdowns that may cause cellular processes to malfunction. Among other things, recognition and understanding of the communication pathways may help in the development of effective drugs without side effects for various diseases, including cancer.

voice mail
Living cells can receive messages
from cell phones. This finding emerges from a new study by Prof. Zager, carried out together with Dr. Yosef Friedman. It is about the way in which living cells react to the radiation signals of mobile phones. The scientists exposed living cells grown in the laboratory to radiation in the range of frequencies and intensities of the cell phone networks, with exposure times of up to 45 minutes. It turns out that the communication signals of the phone radiation pass into the cell in the ERK communication pathway. The cells in the experiment responded to the radiation of the phones with a number of "answers", according to the changes in the radiation frequencies and intensity.
Do these findings indicate that the cell phones communicate directly with the ERK intracellular communication pathway?
Prof. Zager and Dr. Friedman believe that free radical molecules mediate between the two lines of communication (telephone and intra-cellular). These molecules are formed in cells under different physiological conditions, and they can participate in cellular processes such as proliferation, or processes that lead to the development of various diseases,
including cancer. The scientists say that cell phone radiation may be one of the causes of the formation of free radicals, which in turn activate the ERK intracellular communication pathway. This pathway, on its sub-pathways, allows the living cell to respond in different ways to different radiation intensities and frequencies.
Does this research have implications for human health? The answer to this question is still unknown. The current study was carried out in cell cultures in the laboratory. In the near future, the researchers plan to examine the question in animals. They hope that this future research will shed light on the way and extent to which radiation from cell phones affects the cells of the human body.