Invited speaker: Elena Naumova

Elena Naumova (Laboratory of physics and technology of 3D nanostructures, Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics SB RAS)

'Researches of mitogenetic radiation (ultra-weak photon emission of biological objects in UV-range) in 1923 — 1948 and cancer diagnostics'

Abstract: Ultra-weak photon emission of biological objects in UV-range was discovered by A.G. Gurwitsch in 1923 due to its ability to stimulate mitotic rate in cell cultures and tissues and was called mitogenetic radiation. Similar stimulating effect was shown to be produced by a very weak radiation of artificial UV-sources. The mitogenetic radiation was registered by biological detectors and modified Geiger-Mueller counters. It was supposed to be a chemiluminescence related to free radical processes. The mitogenetic spectral analysis became a unique instrument for non-invasive study of biochemical processes in living organisms. Experiments demonstrated that blood of healthy humans and animals emitted mainly due to glycolytic processes. At the earliest stages of malignization for any localization of tumor the blood radiation was found to cease due to a highly specific peptide or a group of similar peptides quenching UV-chemiluminescence (so called cancer quencher). Chemical structure of the cancer quencher could not be identified in those times, however, its physicochemical properties were described in details. Cancer diagnostics based on the detection of the cancer quencher in blood was successfully tested in the main clinics of USSR and demonstrated specificity and sensitivity >95%. Possibility to use a blood peptide as a highly-specific tumor marker was proclaimed 30 years before the alpha-fetoprotein and this statement was revolutionary for the 1930s. These works were stopped after the famous session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1948, were persecuted as a pathological science and got into oblivion. Now, when many scientific results obtained in experiments on mitogenetic radiation have been proved by other methods (such as existence of peptide tumor markers, photoreactivaion and others) it seems a proper time to resume these researches. Verification of the claimed cancer diagnostics is promising for the early cancer screening, estimation of efficacy of medical treatment, and prognosis of metastases. The novel photomultipliers with AlGaN photocathodes have a highly selective sensitivity in UV-range and low dark currents, they can be used for an unambiguous verification of the early experiments on mitogenetic radiation and cancer diagnostics.

Please note: presentation will be in Russian.