Biochemical Quantum Tunneling

K. Goser, Peter Glösekötter, Jan Dienstuhl

Sorin Comorosan, P. Murgoci

James E Beecham

Rapid amphibian metamorphosis, particularly tadpole tail resorption, has promptedproposals that classical biochemical kinetics alone may not fully explain the speed andcoordination of tissue breakdown and reassembly. While mainstream developmentalbiology attributes metamorphosis to endocrine signaling and enzymatic remodeling,recent speculative discussions have suggested a role for quantum tunneling in rate-limitingbiochemical steps. This paper reframes that idea within the SP3 (Space-Phase-3)framework. In SP3, space is an active, conditionable phase medium whose coherence,memory, and relaxation dynamics influence microscopic propagation processes. Wepropose that the tadpole’s relocation from an aquatic to an aerated environmentconstitutes a global space-phase reconditioning event that shortens space-phase memoryand increases barrier fluctuation rates in key biochemical microenvironments. Thistransition may transiently raise the likelihood of quantum tunneling in proton, hydrogen, orelectron transfer steps critical to rapid tissue remodeling. The hypothesis remainscompatible with established endocrinological mechanisms while offering a physicalintuition for why metamorphosis proceeds abruptly during environmental transition.

Cherif Farid Matta

Sisir Roy

inquantio

A study published on bioRxiv demonstrated that quantum tunneling plays a key role in in vitro hydrolytic enzyme reactions by analyzing kinetic isotope effects (KIE) through deuterium substitution. The involvement of the quantum tunneling effect was confirmed through temperature dependence experiments in major biochemical reactions such as SIRT3-mediated deacetylation, I-SceI-mediated DNA cleavage, and caspase-3-mediated protein cleavage. By observing that DNA homologous recombinational (HR) repair in living cells is almost completely inhibited in a deuterium environment that lowers the probability of quantum tunneling, it was demonstrated that quantum effects dominate cell survival itself. [Quantum Biology Society] Behind life phenomena lies a strange quantum world that cannot be explained by classical mechanics. A prime example is quantum tunneling, where particles pass through reaction energy barriers as if by magic. While it has been known that quantum tunneling contributes to speeding up some enzyme reactions inside proteins , there has been a lack of concrete empirical evidence as to whether this is an essential physical requirement directly linked to actual cell survival. Recently, a groundbreaking study was published showing that if the quantum tunneling effect is inhibited, the cell's life support system itself completely halts. The paper titled "Cell viability is dominated by quantum effects," published on the preprint repository bioRxiv, strongly supports this. A multi-institutional joint research team, including Takeshi Yasuda from the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Sciences and Technology (QST) and Kobe University in Japan, led this innovative research. ■ The Link Between Enzyme Hydrolysis and Quantum Tunneling The research team utilized deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, to track how quantum tunneling is involved in enzymatic chemical reactions. In a heavy deuterium environment, the probability of quantum tunneling is significantly lower compared to light hydrogen, and the research team precisely measured the resulting kinetic isotope effects (KIE) and their temperature dependence. Experimental results proved that the quantum tunneling effect is deeply involved in in vitro hydrolysis reactions essential for cellular metabolism, such as SIRT3-mediated deacetylation, I-SceI-mediated DNA cleavage, and caspase-3-mediated protein cleavage, as evidenced by the disappearance of the isotope effect above specific temperatures. ■ A Halted DNA Repair System Furthermore, the research team directly investigated the impact of the quantum characteristics of these enzyme reactions on living cells. When human cells were exposed to a deuterium-substituted (D₂O) medium environment that artificially lowered the probability of quantum tunneling, it was observed that DNA homologous recombinational (HR) repair, one of the core survival mechanisms of cells, was almost completely inhibited. This means that the most important biochemical repair process protecting and maintaining the genetic information of organisms undergoes a chain reaction of several enzymes and cannot function normally without quantum tunneling phenomena. ■ Quantum Effects Dominating Cell Viability This study empirically demonstrates that core biochemical reactions in living organisms do not simply rely on thermodynamic energy but are fundamentally indebted to quantum mechanical tunneling phenomena. The discovery that numerous hydrolysis and repair reactions performed by enzymes within cells are ultimately strictly dominated by quantum effects serves as crucial evidence that rewrites life phenomena from a purely quantum physics perspective. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.18.549596v1