Physics of Electrotherapy

Research > Published Papers

There have been a number of papers discussing the physics behind the use of electrotherapy devices, as used in Rife equipment. Some of these papers will be a bit involved for the non-scientific mind.

Catalytic Wheel, Brownian Motor, and Biological Energy Transduction
Tian Yow Tsong and Cheng-Hung Chang - AAPPS Bulletin Vol.13, No.2

An enzyme turns over, or recycles during each catalytic process. It is a catalytic wheel, analogous to a motor, or an engine. The fuel, or the driving force for the wheel, is the free energy of the substrate (S) to product (P) conversion (GR), or a free energy output of a coupled chemical reaction. When GR of the S -> P reaction is negative the reaction is spontaneous and the downhill wheel motion requires no external input of energy. When GR is positive the wheel must turn uphill against a workload, a reaction that produces energy must be coupled to the wheel. The synthesis of ATP from ADP and Pi in a cell is an uphill reaction and the energy required for the synthesis is derived from the dissipation of a proton gradient, or an electric potential. This article focuses on mechanisms of action of the uphill catalytic wheels. It is shown that the coupling of an external energy source to an uphill catalytic wheel can be done, with nearly 100% efficiency, by mechanisms of the Brownian Motor. Theory of electroconformational coupling (TEC) is used to construct a Brownian motor, and electric activation of an ion pump, Na, K-ATPase is used to demonstrate its basic principles. A TEC Motor has three essential elements: 1) the ability of the protein to interact with an electric field, 2) existence of at least two conformations of protein that oscillate or fluctuate on interaction with the applied field, and 3) a built-in asymmetry in the molecular interactions with substrate and product. It is shown that the TEC Motor is a generic model and applicable to other types of biological energy transducers.

RF Interaction Mechanisms
Lawrie Challis, University of Nottingham, Chair of Management Committee of the UK's Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme.

Qualitative description of interaction mechanisms, particularly those published in the last four years or so. Variety of mechanisms proposed. Some seem unlikely to lead to biological effects for f~1 GHz. For others the position is less clear. Thermal effects could be age dependent although still unlikely to be significant below guidelines. (local heating?)

Membrane Physical Model in Near Infrared, Visible, and Ultraviolet Spectra
Gérard Dubost, Institut d'lectronique et de élécommunications de Rennes CNRS - France
André Bellossi, Villa Gabrielle, Chemin du Goh Vras - 56730 Saint Gildas de Rhuys - France

From recent experimental results we deduce a physical model of the cell membrane [21]. The transparent range, stretched from 0.22 to 0.9 ?m, is located between two absorbing ranges. Four resonance wavelengths of the cell membrane are chosen to be in good agreement with the experimental results. Physical theories are used to calculate the membrane complex index of refraction. The cell membrane permeability appears following its transmission coefficient which has been found. The high value of the radiation pressure calculated inside the membrane due to pulsated infrared light could explain the acceleration of the CVcells microtubules array disassembly. The theory explains the increasing of the mitochondria fluorescence irradiated with an ultraviolet light. Then a physiological or artificial low frequency signal due to one nervous fiber diffraction, acting upon ions, could produce an ionizing radiation in UV spectrum.

Solitary-Waves Effects on Ions Emissions in the Living Matter
G. Dubost, A. Bellossi and J. Bare

We present a quantic theory to explain the "spontaneous" and the "induced" emissions of the ions whose photon energies are following a radioactive decreasing law in the ultraviolet, visible and infrared spectrum. These emissions are due to solitary-waves or solitons issued from an external confined plasma device.

The spectral energy density inside the living matter depends on the plasma characteristics, the modulation frequency of the carrier wave, and the distance from the device. As we know the dipolar transition electric moment we determine both the probability of the "spontaneous" emission and with the spectral energy density the probability of "induced" emission. We can deduce the fundamental lifetime of the photons. Furthermore the number of the photons by unit of area is calculated. It depends on the modulation frequency, the spectral energy density, and its wavelength. In UV spectrum, for an efficient "induced" emission the modulation frequency has to be high. In that case, with our device the photon lifetime and the used irradiation exposure are of the same order.

Our results are in good agreement with two recent published experiments. In one of them, some authors have shown specific effects, in a near environment, of alternating electric fields applied with two insulated electrodes. For some days of application the proliferation of malignant cells in culture, and tumors growing in mice, were inhibited.

In the order, the biophoton density measured in the optical spectrum and spontaneously emitted by all living systems are in good agreement with our generated photon density evaluation. We can say the "induced" Ultraviolet emission by the ions in the living matter due to our external plasma device can interfere with the biophotons emitted by the DNA.

Index Terms: Ions, living matter, radioactive emission, solitons.

Efficiency of Solitary-Waved Radiated by the Discharge in a Confined Plasma Column
Gérard Dubost, Institut d'lectronique et de Télécommunications de Rennes, Campus de Beaulieu - France
André Bellossi, Villa Gabrielle, Chemin du Goh Vras - France
James Bare, Marble Avenue NE Albuquerque, NM87110, USA

To day it is obvious to consider the radiation efficiency of the « Priore machine » which was reported to cure tumors in rats essentially imputable to the discharge in a plasma tube (1964). The ultra-sound radiation hypothesis has to be rejected because the huge transmission attenuation. We explain now the propagation of solitary-waves or solitons by the non linearity effects produced inside a confined plasma tube excited by a high frequency modulated by a low frequency square signal [10]. The soliton measured with success is the single solution of the Kortweg-de-Vries non linear differential equation. These non-scattered waves are called "pseudo sonorous" owing to the slow speed of the argon ions. The radiation is effective because the plasma column acts as a small dipole antenna in the near field area. The ion current distributions and the radiated electromagnetic fields have been measured inside two different laboratories (France and USA). The soliton theoretical magnitude has been expressed in terms of the Landau length, the mean distance between the two argon ions, and the Debye screen wavelength of the plasma. The TM wave radiated by the plasma antenna has been measured with success in a good agreement with the theoretical one. The spectral analysis showed a radiation for the low modulation frequencies comprised between 2 and 20 KHz associated with their odd harmonics. The deduced endogenous field has been recently used to calculate the ionic current induced along a nervous fiber which can be considered as an individualized electrical unit. The diffracted electric field of low frequency can reach several dozens of kV/m in a near environment [11]. The interaction between solitary waves and dielectric matter, for example the sea water, can give rise to Zenneck waves, practically propagating without attenuation [10].

An Approach to Electrical Modeling of Single and Multiple Cells

Thiruvallur R. Gowrishankar and James C. Weaver - Harvard–Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

Previous theoretical approaches to understanding effects of electricon cells have used partial differential equations such as Laplace’s equation and cell models with simple shapes. Here we describe a transport lattice method illustrated by a didactic multicellular system model with irregular shapes. Each elementary membrane region includes local models for passive membrane resistance and capacitance, nonlinear active sources of the resting potential, and a hysteretic model of electroporation. Field amplification through current or voltage concentration changes with frequency, exhibiting significant spatial heterogeneity until the microwave range is reached, where cellular structure becomes almost ‘‘electrically invisible." In the time domain, membrane electroporation exhibits significant heterogenetity but occurs mostly at invaginations and cell layers with tight junctions. Such results involve emergent behavior and emphasize the importance of using multicellular models for understanding tissue-level electric field effects in higher organisms.

Colloquium: The quest for high-conductance DNA
R.G. Endres, D.L. Cox and R.R.P. Singh, Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol 72, January 2004

The DNA molecule, well known from biology for containing the genetic code of all living species, has recently caught the attention of chemists and physicists. A major reason for this interest is DNA’s potential use in nanoelectronic devices, both as a template for assembling nanocircuits and as an element of such circuits. Without question, a truly conducting form of DNA would have a major impact on developments in nanotechnology. It has also been suggested that extended electronic states of DNA could play an important role in biology, e.g., through the processes of DNA damage sensing or repair or through long-range charge transfer. However, the electronic properties of DNA remain very controversial. Charge-transfer reactions and conductivity measurements show a large variety of possible electronic behavior, ranging from Anderson and band-gap insulators to effective molecular wires and induced superconductors. Indeed, understanding the conductance of a complicated polyelectrolytic aperiodic system is by itself a major scientific problem. In this Colloquium, the authors summarize the wide-ranging experimental and theoretical results and look for any consistencies between them. They also pose simple questions regarding the electronic states of DNA within the framework of generalized Hu¨ ckel and Slater-Koster theories. The Colloquium provides a quantitative overview of DNA’s electronic states as obtained from density-functional theory, focusing on dependence on structure, on molecular stretching and twisting, and on water and counterions. While there is no clear theoretical basis for truly metallic DNA, situations are discussed in which very small energy gaps might arise in the overall DNA/water/counterion complex, leading to thermally activated conduction at room temperature.

Undulation instability of lipid membranes under an electric field
Pierre Sens & H. Isambert, Strasbourg, France - arXiv:cond-mat/0106634 v1 29 Jun 2001

The influence of an electric field on a poorly conductive membrane such as a lipid bilayer is studied theoretically. The unbalanced electric stress created by an ionic current across a non-perfectly flat membrane gives rise to a destabilizing surface energy enhancing undulations. The deformation of a membrane attached to a frame and the subsequent force on the frame are derived and the electrohydrodynamic instability of a free floating membrane is also studied. We find a most unstable mode of undulation, of wavelength in the µm range, connected to the crossover between membrane and solvent dominated dissipations.

Impedance-based Biosensors
X. Huang, D.W. Greve, I Nausieda, D. Nguyen and M.M. Domach - Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Impedance measurements on arrays of microelectrodes can provide information about the
growth, motility, and physiology of cells growing on the electrodes. In this talk, we report recent results obtained for the growth of 3T3 mouse fibroblasts and HCT116 human cancer cells on gold electrodes approximately 0.4 mm in area. Cells produce a characteristic peak in the impedance change plotted as a function of frequency. With the aid of electrical modeling of the cell-electrode system, the details of the changes in the measured impedance can be correlated to the cell size, fractional electrode coverage, and cell-electrode gap. In particular, comparison of impedance measurements of these two cell types show clear differences in the growth rate and the ratio of the cell-electrode gap to the cell size. In addition to presenting these experimental results illustrating the utility of electrode impedance measurements, we will outline the issues encountered when electrodes are scaled to cell size and incorporated into a matrix-addressed array.

Oscillations and Waves - Lecture 8
Dr. Simon Hanna, March 15, 2004

Fourier transform, the bandwidth theorem, wave packets and dispersion, two waves with same amplitude, different frequency (beats), dispersion.

The frequency dependence of phospholipid vesicle shapes in an external electric field
Primoz Peterlin, Saša Svetina, Bostjan Zeks - Institute of Biophysics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia / Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Experiments show that phospholipid vesicles exposed to AC electric field undergo a shape transition from prolate to oblate ellipsoidal shape when the frequency of the field is increased. In a theoretical model that has been devised to explain this phenomenon for nearly spherical vesicles, the vesicle shape is determined by the minimization of the total free energy of the vesicle. The two contributions to the total free energy are the membrane bending energy and the energy of the electric field. The model exhibits the same frequency-dependent prolate-to-oblate shape transition as observed in the experiment.

Key words: phospholipid vesicle · deformation · electric field

Cell Membrane Electropermeabilization with Arbitrary Pulse Waveforms
Karel Flisar, Marko Puc, Tadej Kotnik, and Damijan Miklancic - IEEE Engineering in Medicine in Medicine and Biology Magazine, Jan/Feb 2003

Exposure of a biological cell to an electric field can produce a variety of responses. If the field strength exceeds a certain threshold value, this leads to a large transient increase in membrane conductivity and permeability for ions and molecules (electropermeabilization, often also named electroporation) or to fusion of adjacent cells (electrofusion). Nowadays, these phenomena are widely used in applications such as gene transfection, preparation of monoclonal antibodies, and drug delivery, especially in electrochemotherapy of tumors. For optimal effectiveness of these applications, one must choose the most appropriate, amplitude, duration, and waveform of the applied electric pulses. With 2mm distance between plate electrodes, which is an established setup for electropermeabilization in vitro, the threshold voltages typically range from 120 to 300 V, with pulse durations from several microseconds to several milliseconds. Due to these demands, electropermeabilization is performed using specialized devices, often referred to as electroporators or electropulsators. Today, several such devices are commercially available, delivering either exponential or unipolar rectangular pulses with adjustable duration and amplitude. Often, the number of pulses and the intervals in which they are delivered can also be chosen.

Second-Order Model of Membrane Electric Field Induced by Alternating External Electric Fields
Tadej Kotnik and Damijan Miklavcic, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Vol 47, No. 8, August 2000

With biological cells exposed to ac electric fields below 100 kHz, external field is amplified in the cell membrane by a factor of several thousands (low-frequency plateau), while above 100 kHz, this amplification gradually decreases with frequency. Below 10 MHz, this situation is well described by the established first-order theory which treats the cytoplasm and the external medium as pure conductors. At higher frequencies, capacitive properties of the cytoplasm and the external medium become increasingly important and thus must be accounted for. This leads to a broader, second-order model, which is treated in detail in this paper. Unlike the first-order model, this model shows that above 10 MHz, the membrane field amplification stops decreasing and levels off again in the range of tens (high-frequency plateau). Existence of the high-frequency plateau could have an important impact on present theories of high-frequency electric fields effects on cells and their membranes.

Index Terms AC electric fields, electric field stimulation, membrane electric field, membrane electrodynamics, transmembrane voltage.

Toward an Electromagnetic Paradigm for Biology and Medicine
Abraham R. Liboff, Ph.D., Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, Vol. 10, Number 1, 2004, pp. 41-47

Work by Lund, Burr, Becker, and others leads to the inescapable conclusion that organisms tend to express quasisystemic electric changes when perturbed, and, conversely, will tend toward wellness either through endogenous repair currents or the application of equivalent external currents. We show that an all-inclusive electromagnetic field representation for living systems is fully consistent with this extensive body of work. This electrogenomic field may provide the basis for a new paradigm in biology and medicine that is radically different from the present emphasis on molecular biology and biochemistry. An electromagnetic field description also enables a more rational transformation from the genome than the present endpoint, universally stated in terms of the so-called visible characteristics. Furthermore, once the organism is described as an electromagnetic entity, this strongly suggests the reason for the efficacy of the various electromagnetic therapies, namely as the most direct means of restoring the body’s impacted electromagnetic field to its normal state.

Measuring Effects of Music, Noise, and Healing Energy Using a Seed Germination Bioassay
KATHERINE CREATH, Ph.D., and GARY E. SCHWARTZ, Ph.D. - The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol 10, No. 1, 2004, pp. 113-122

Objective: To measure biologic effects of music, noise, and healing energy without human preferences or placebo effects using seed germination as an objective biomarker.
Methods: A series of five experiments were performed utilizing okra and zucchini seeds germinated in acoustically shielded, thermally insulated, dark, humid growth chambers. Conditions compared were an untreated control, musical sound, pink noise, and healing energy. Healing energy was administered for 15–20 minutes every 12 hours with the intention that the treated seeds would germinate faster than the untreated seeds. The objective marker was the number of seeds sprouted out of groups of 25 seeds counted at 12-hour intervals over a 72-hour growing period. Temperature and relative humidity were monitored every 15 minutes inside the seed germination containers. A total of 14 trials were run testing a total of 4600 seeds.
Results: Musical sound had a highly statistically significant effect on the number of seeds sprouted compared to the untreated control over all five experiments for the main condition (p , 0.002) and over time (p ,0.000002). This effect was independent of temperature, seed type, position in room, specific petri dish, and person doing the scoring. Musical sound had a significant effect compared to noise and an untreated control as a function of time (p , 0.03) while there was no significant difference between seeds exposed to noise and an
untreated control. Healing energy also had a significant effect compared to an untreated control (main condition, p , 0.0006) and over time (p , 0.0001) with a magnitude of effect comparable to that of musical sound.
Conclusion: This study suggests that sound vibrations (music and noise) as well as biofields (bioelectromagnetic and healing intention) both directly affect living biologic systems, and that a seed germination bioassay has the sensitivity to enable detection of effects caused by various applied energetic conditions.

Studies on the Interaction Between Electromagnetic Fields and Living Matter Neoplastic Cellular Culture
Suleyman Seckiner Gorgun, Collegno, Italy - ISSN: 1062-4767., Volume: 7., Number: 2., Fall, 1998.

The study of the interactions between electromagnetic fields and living matter has become a fertile field for research in the last century, even though these phenomena have been empirically observed by various civilisations since ancient times. Considerable experimental evidence today points to the possibility of modulating biological functions and structures in a controlled way by applying electromagnetic fields and, vice versa, the possibility of detecting and measuring endogenous electrical currents in living organisms and their components

Interaction of an Intense Electromagnetic Pulse with a Plasma
S. Poornakala, Prof. P. K. Kaw, Prof. A. Sen & Dr.Amita Das - September 2003

Questions related to single peak solitons in a cold plasma are addressed.

Analytical description for multi-peak solitons are provided.
Effect of finite temperature on slow speed entities provides a new regime of propagation speed for bright solitons.
Multi-peak solitons are identifed in the e-p-I admixture plasma. Eigenvalue condition, limit on the propagation speed are derived.
Three new classes of solitons are obtained.

Physical mechanism :

Cold plasma: Balancing of ponderomotive force and the force due to space charge field.
Warm plasma : Balancing of ponderomotive force due to pressure gradient forces.

Physiological and Molecular Genetic Effects of Time-Varying Electromagnetic Fields on Human Neuronal Cells
Thomas J. Goodwin, Ph.D., Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, NASA, September 2003

The present investigation details the development of model systems for growing two- and three-dimensional human neural progenitor cells within a culture medium facilitated by a time-varying electromagnetic field (TVEMF). The cells and culture medium are contained within a two- or three-dimensional culture vessel, and the electromagnetic field is emitted from an electrode or coil. These studies further provide methods to promote neural tissue regeneration by means of culturing the neural cells in either configuration. Grown in two dimensions, neuronal cells extended longitudinally, forming tissue strands extending axially along and within electrodes comprising electrically conductive channels or guides through which a time-varying electrical current was conducted. In the three-dimensional aspect, exposure to TVEMF resulted in the development of three-dimensional aggregates, which emulated organized neural tissues. In both experimental configurations, the proliferation rate of the TVEMF cells was 2.5 to 4.0 times the rate of the non-waveform cells. Each of the experimental embodiments resulted in similar molecular genetic changes regarding the growth potential of the tissues as measured by gene chip analyses, which measured more than 10,000 human genes simultaneously.

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In Biological Cells as Circular Waveguides and Resonators
František Jelínek and Ji•í Pokorný. Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic - Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, Volume 20, Number 1 / 2001, pp 75-80

The microtubules in the cellular cytoskeleton have a fundamental role in the living processes of biological cells. They are hollow cylinders which resemble circular waveguides or cylindrical resonators. The cutoff and resonant frequencies of the transverse magnetic and transverse electric modes of the microtubule cavities are in the band of soft x-rays. This suggests the possibility of interaction of electromagnetic cavity modes with inner electrons in atoms (e.g., in carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen). Biological cells (e.g., the yeast cells of spherical shape) may also represent cavity resonators. In this case, the resonant frequencies may be in the infrared region.

Fröhlich System with Modulated Access to Pumping Source
Fedor Šrobár, Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, Division of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Praha, Czech Republic - Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, Volume 24, Number 3 / 2005, pp 265 - 272

Vibrating polar molecular entities in biological cell's interior can emit radiation. Fröhlich postulated rate equations for occupancy of the vibration modes which can be written as (see link for formula). In previous work, we applied a diagrammatic method to bring out the feedback features of this model in the case when all modes have equal access to the pumping source. This approach is generalized by assuming that modal pumping rates are dependent on occupation numbers according to formula (see link for formula), which expresses the idea that oscillators first must be primed in order to absorb the available energy in full extent. Results suggest marked differences in behavior of oscillators with different frequencies.

Electrodynamic Signaling by the Dendritic Cytoskeleton: Toward an Intracellular Information Processing Model
Avner Priel, Jack A. Tuszynski, Horacio F. Cantiello, Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada as well as Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, USA - Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, Volume 24, Number 3 / 2005, pp 221-231

A novel model for information processing in dendrites is proposed based on electrodynamic signaling mediated by the cytoskeleton. Our working hypothesis is that the dendritic cytoskeleton, including both microtubules (MTs) and actin filaments plays an active role in computations affecting neuronal function. These cytoskeletal elements are affected by, and in turn regulate, a key element of neuronal information processing, namely, dendritic ion channel activity. We present a molecular dynamics description of the C-termini protruding from the surface of an MT that reveals the existence of several conformational states, which lead to collective dynamical properties of the neuronal cytoskeleton. Furthermore, these collective states of the C-termini on MTs have a significant effect on ionic condensation and ion cloud propagation with physical similarities to those recently found in actin filaments. Our objective is to provide an integrated view of these phenomena in a bottom-up scheme, demonstrating that ionic wave interactions and propagation along cytoskeletal structures impacts channel functions and, thus, neuronal computational capabilities.