In 1972, a British pharmacologist named Geoffrey Burnstock published a paper proposing that ATP is released from nerve terminals and acts as a neurotransmitter. The scientific establishment's response was a dismissal. The objections were that as the universal energy currency of all living cells, ATP was too ubiquitous to serve as a signal among neurons––it was everywhere, inside everything. That skepticism delayed a medical revolution by two decades. Burnstock continued wor

For more than a century, neuroscience has been built around a neuron-centered worldview. The heroes of this story are familiar neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, glutamate, and GABA. Textbooks describe neurons communicating across synapses in brain circuits using these specialized chemical messengers. The vast ‘connectome’ network of axons and dendrites was believed to determine mental events. Neurons were viewed as the only true informatio

For more than a century, biology has largely viewed cellular communication as a chemical process. This chemical view has been very helpful in describing a large number of cellular signaling pathways. However, modern cell biology increasingly reveals a deeper reality. Cells are not simply bags of chemicals. They are highly organized information-processing systems operating across many scales simultaneously. Within every cell, billions of molecules continuously exchange infor

Reprint of Cellular Mind chapter 5 which makes the case that the electromagnetic force combines and powers increasingly complex forms of matter and mind.

A previous post noted how microbes can help cancers in all stages of their development. Now, it has been found that the one-time microbe now the mitochondria is also vital for cancer to start, to grow, to survive and to metastasize. These microbes and the mitochondria use back and forth communication to help cancers in many ways. This post describes the recent research about mitochondria and its vital relationship to cancer. Mitochondria Joined Forces With Our Cells Two billi

Two thousand years ago Aristotle wrote that cells lining blood vessels determine organs. Recently, he was found correct when capillary cells demonstrated elaborate communication with stem cells and many other cells. Unique capillary cells in each organ have dramatic effects on the life of the cells in that region. With elaborate communication between immune and blood cells, tissue stem cells and neurons, they are the brains of the local region. Now, another cell, called peric

Communication among cells is the basis of all immune and nervous system activity. Research continues to find large vocabularies of signals in different languages—neurotransmitters, cytokines, small RNAs, protein transcription factors, small lipid molecules and glycan sugars. The numbers of signals is growing fantastically with at least 50 neurotransmitters, 100 cytokines, thousands of transcription factors and small RNAs and as yet indefinable large number of ubiquitin tags,

The largest number of brain molecules are lipids (fats). Unique regulation of brain lipids is complex and contributes to many diseases. Surprisingly, it has been found that membrane lipids direct proteins and proteins direct lipids. Previous posts have discussed the importance of lipids in communication between brain cells using vesicles made with fatty membranes. The rapid complex process where lipid covered vesicles transmit neuro transmitters at synapses uses 80% of all o

It is well known that neurons send a variety of intelligent critical signals to other neurons, glia, and immune cells using neurotransmitters, vesicles of several types, cytokines and nanotubes between cells. Elaborate back and forth communication between immune cells uses a wide variety of cytokines, neurotransmitters and vesicles with genetic material. Recently, intelligent decision-making by many other cells was discovered, including epithelial cells lining the intestine a

Dendrites have been considered passive calculators of input signals. In fact, they are extremely dynamic and can produce their own electrical spikes. Dendrites have a vast array of different ways to function when helping to determine the next axon action potential. Recent research has begun to scratch the surface of the complexity of dendrite calculations. A previous post described details about the ever changing and varied dendrite spines and necks with many unique shapes th

Living among trillions of microbes, it is necessary to determine which are going to cause disease. This is done by recognizing patterns with special receptors on immune cells—pattern recognition receptors or PPRs. Once triggered, receptors activate powerful mechanisms to cause inflammation that is life saving but, also, can attack our own cells with chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases. In fact, as with every other critical aspect of physiology, pattern recognition re

Small lining cells along the border of the brain’s ventricles are the gateway and supervisor of the relationship between the brain and the rest of the body, including the immune system. The choroid plexus cells produce cerebral spinal fluid, which bathes the brain and provides a cushion. But, it, also, performs a vast amount of other much more complex functions. The fluid filled ventricles are a critical source of sophisticated communication between brain and immune cells.The

Several intelligent viruses have been featured in previous posts. Herpes has a very complex life style with more than 70 genes—traveling up and down the neuron and in and out of the skin cell. HIV has an extraordinary set of complex behaviors with only 9 genes—travelling with critical proteins in its capsid, evading immune cells with multiple techniques and manipulating the cell’s complex nuclear machinery. How all of this can be accomplished with only 9 genes is not clear. N

Several posts have documented the unusual complex behavior of viruses. In particular, a recent post, The Remarkable Intelligent Varicella Virus, described a wide range of different complex behaviors for this small herpes virus. Somehow, it is able to enter and exit skin and nerve cells; travel up and down along the microtubules of the axons by commandeering the motors; move in and out of the cell’s nucleus; and alter its own behavior in different circumstances. The varicella

The common wisdom that myelin is just an insulator to make faster neuronal communication has been overthrown by recent research that finds much more complexity in how myelin is used by the brain. The old “neuron doctrine” (one of many useless dogmas) was that each neuron sends a signal to the next neuron, and so on, in computer like fashion. In fact, the process is vastly more complex and variable and the new myelin code adds to brain complexity in very important ways. Resear

A view of DNA from 2014 which continues to unexplained by modern scientific theories.

Evidence of intelligent behavior in subcellular structures.

As both unique immune cells and unique brain cells that constantly change shape and have numerous different functions, are microglia the most intelligent brain cells? Microglia travel independently, not attached to any structure, constantly circling a territory with extended arms repeatedly tapping all axons, dendrites and synapses looking to detect any suboptimal functioning. Their constant surveillance of the brain protects against any microbe invaders, demyelination, traum