Are stress responses to geomagnetic storms mediated by the cryptochrome compass system?

Close, James

doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.0324

Cited by 39 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…Once adjusted for ethnicity and socio-demographic variables, migration alone may not be crucial to health outcomes [53]. This opens the possibility that other factors, yet to be fully studied, like solar cycle variations of UVR and geomagnetic forces, modulate our epigenome [54]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in ultraviolet radiation and diabetes: evidence of an epigenetic effect that modulates diabetics’ lifespan

Davis¹,

Lowell²

2013

Clin Epigenet

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BackgroundPublished research has shown that month-of-birth variations modulate the incidence of adult human diseases. This article explores diabetes type 2 as one of those diseases. This study uses the death records of approximately 829,000 diabetics (approximately 90% were type-2) born before the year 1945 (and dying between 1979 and 2005) to show that variations in adult lifespan vary with ultraviolet radiation (UVR) at solar cycle peaks (MAX, approximately a three-year period) with less at non-peaks (MIN, approximately an eight-year period). The MAX minus MIN (in years) was our measure of sensitivity (for example, responsiveness) to long-term variations in UVR.ResultsDiabetics were less sensitive than non-diabetics, and ethnic minorities were more sensitive than whites. Diabetic males gained 6.1 years, and females 2.3 years over non-diabetics, with diabetic males gaining an average of 3.8 years over diabetic females. Most variation in lifespan occurred in those conceived around the seasonal equinoxes, suggesting that the human epigenome at conception is especially influenced by rapid variation in UVR. With rapidly decreasing UVR at conception, lifespan decreased in the better-nourished, white, female diabetic population.ConclusionsRapidly changing UVR at the equinoxes modulates the expression of an epigenome involving the conservation of energy, a mechanism especially canalized in women. Decreasing UVR at conception and early gestation stimulates energy conservation in persons we consider ‘diabetic’ in today’s environment of caloric surfeit. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries ethnic minorities had poorer nutrition, laborious work, and leaner bodies, and in that environment a calorie-conserving epigenome was a survival advantage. Ethnic minorities with a similar epigenome lived long enough to express diabetes as we define it today and exceeded the lifespan of their non-diabetic contemporaries, while that epigenome in diabetics in the nutritional environment of today is detrimental to lifespan.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in ultraviolet radiation and diabetes: evidence of an epigenetic effect that modulates diabetics’ lifespan

Davis¹,

Lowell²

2013

Clin Epigenet

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“…In the other hand, however we assumed that there may be a genetical basis that can be the cause of sensitivity of susceptible individuals to GMD, such a genetic basis, except than a new finding about human cryptochrome CRY2 gene [137], was not confirmed or evaluated up to now.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geomagnetic disturbances may be environmental risk factor for multiple sclerosis: an ecological study of 111 locations in 24 countries

Sajedi

Abdollahi

2012

BMC Neurol

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BackgroundWe noticed that a hypothesis based on the effect of geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) has the ability to explain special features of multiple sclerosis (MS). Areas around geomagnetic 60 degree latitude (GM60L) experience the greatest amount of GMD. The easiest way to evaluate our hypothesis was to test the association of MS prevalence (MSP) with angular distance to geomagnetic 60 degree latitude (AMAG60) and compare it with the known association of MS with geographical latitude (GL). We did the same with angular distance to geographic 60 degree latitude (AGRAPH60) as a control.MethodsEnglish written papers with MSP keywords, done in Europe (EUR), North America (NA) or Australasia (AUS) were retrieved from the PubMed. Geomagnetic coordinates were determined for each location and AMAG60 was calculated as absolute value of numerical difference between its geomagnetic latitude from GM60L. By an ecological study with using meta-regression analyses, the relationship of MSP with GL, AMAG60 and AGRAPH60 were evaluated separately. MSP data were weighted by square root of number of prevalent cases. Models were compared by their adjusted R square (AR2) and standard error of estimate (SEE).Results111 MSP data were entered in the study. In each continent, AMAG60 had the best correlation with MSP, the largest AR2 (0.47, 0.42 and 0.84 for EUR, NA and AUS, respectively) and the least SEE. Merging both hemispheres data, AMAG60 explained 56% of MSP variations with the least SEE (R = 0.75, AR2 = 0.56, SEE = 57), while GL explained 17% (R = 0.41, AR2 = 0.17, SEE = 78.5) and AGRAPH60 explained 12% of that variations with the highest SEE (R = 0.35, AR2 = 0.12, SEE = 80.5).ConclusionsOur results confirmed that AMAG60 is the best describer of MSP variations and has the strongest association with MSP distribution. They clarified that the well-known latitudinal gradient of MSP may be actually a gradient related to GM60L. Moreover, the location of GM60L can elucidate why MSP has parabolic and linear gradient in the north and south hemisphere, respectively. This preliminary evaluation supported that GMD can be the mysterious environmental risk factor for MS. We believe that this hypothesis deserves to be considered for further validation studies.

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“…Prompted by their putative role in magnetoreception, cryptochromes have become the focus of recent discussions of fortuitous radical pair effects in biology (31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39). Juutilainen et al, for example, have proposed a hypothesis to explain the link between environmental ELF magnetic fields and childhood leukaemia ('magnetocarcinogenesis') (12).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upper bound on the biological effects of 50/60 Hz magnetic fields mediated by radical pairs

Hore

2018

Preprint

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Prolonged exposure to weak (~1 T) extremely-low-frequency (ELF, 50/60 Hz) magnetic fields has been associated with an increased risk of childhood leukaemia. One of the few biophysical mechanisms that might account for this link involves short-lived chemical reaction intermediates known as radical pairs. In this report, we use spin dynamics simulations to derive an upper bound of 10 parts per million on the effect of a 1 T ELF magnetic field on the yield of a radical pair reaction. By comparing this figure with the corresponding effects of changes in the strength of the Earth's magnetic field, we conclude that if exposure to such weak 50/60 Hz magnetic fields has any effect on human biology, and results from a radical pair mechanism, then the risk should be no greater than travelling a few kilometres towards or away from the geomagnetic north or south pole.

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Are stress responses to geomagnetic storms mediated by the cryptochrome compass system?

Cited by 39 publications

References 95 publications

Variation in ultraviolet radiation and diabetes: evidence of an epigenetic effect that modulates diabetics’ lifespan

Variation in ultraviolet radiation and diabetes: evidence of an epigenetic effect that modulates diabetics’ lifespan

Geomagnetic disturbances may be environmental risk factor for multiple sclerosis: an ecological study of 111 locations in 24 countries

Upper bound on the biological effects of 50/60 Hz magnetic fields mediated by radical pairs

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