Abstract
The palette of tools for perturbation of neural activity is continually expanding. On the forefront of this expansion is magnetogenetics, where ion channels are genetically engineered to be closely coupled to the iron-storage protein ferritin. Initial reports on magnetogenetics have sparked a vigorous debate on the plausibility of physical mechanisms of ion channel activation by means of external magnetic fields. The criticism leveled against magnetogenetics as being physically implausible is based on the specific assumptions about the magnetic spin configurations of iron in ferritin. I consider here a wider range of possible spin configurations of iron in ferritin and the consequences these might have in magnetogenetics. I propose several new magneto-mechanical and magneto-thermal mechanisms of ion channel activation that may clarify some of the mysteries that presently challenge our understanding of the reported biological experiments. Finally, I present some additional puzzles that will require further theoretical and experimental investigation.
Highlights
Interaction of biological systems with magnetic fields has puzzled and fascinated the scientific community for a long time[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
Despite the challenges in deciphering the fundamental operating principles of magnetic control of biological ion channels/cells/organisms, the attraction of influencing biological systems with magnetic fields has remained strong. This is mainly due to the fact that external DC and AC magnetic fields penetrate biological tissue, are generated by current carrying wires or permanent magnets, and their properties and engineering design tools are well understood. These features of magnetic fields are commonly used in medical diagnostics applications such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)[8], and there is a strong impetus to apply the same advantages of magnetic fields to control biological function, as is the case in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)[9]
This is the approach of a recent technique development, commonly termed magnetogenetics, where thermo-sensitive and mechano-sensitive ion channels are genetically engineered to be closely spatially coupled to the iron-storage protein ferritin[10,11,12,13]
Summary
Interaction of biological systems with magnetic fields has puzzled and fascinated the scientific community for a long time[1,2,3,4,5,6,7].
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