The ubiquitous biochemical logic of murburn concept

Abstract

In peroxidative biotransformations, reactions occurring outside the enzyme`s `active site` were seen to yield selective and specific outcomes. These observations had inspired me then to postulate that `such a non-active site and environment-dependent mechanism could play significant roles in life-sustenance processes, besides the well-established hierarchical molecular control mechanisms at genes` and proteins` levels`. Through the decade that followed, further research on these strings culminated into the formation of murburn concept, a stochastic scheme of electron/moiety transfers and interactions among molecules, unbound ions and radicals present in reaction milieu. The new understanding explained key qualitative and quantitative aspects of heme/flavin enzymology (substrate diversity, reaction stoichiometry, etc.) and electron transfer mechanism in these enzymes` in vitro setups. Further, murburn schemes were proposed to explain xenobiotic metabolism, cellular respiration, bio-thermogenesis and maverick physiological dose-responses. This article deals with a brief summation of the development of murburn concept, its current status and potential implications/applications in biology and medicine.