Uzoigwe Chika Edward
Department Science, Medicine & Surgery, Harcourt House, Sheffield, S10 1DG, UK.
Biosystems. 2025 May;251:105407. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2025.105407. Epub 2025 Jan 31.
ATP is a universal bio-currency, with chemiosmosis the metabolic mint by which currency is printed. Chemiosmosis leverages a membrane potential and ion gradient, typically a proton gradient, to generate ATP. The current chemiosmotic hypothesis is both cannon and dogma. However, there are obstacles to the unqualified and uncritical acceptance of this model. Intriguingly the proton is sufficiently small to exhibit quantum phenomena of wave-particle duality, often thought the exclusive prerogative of smaller subcellular particles. Evidence shows that chemiosmosis is by necessity critically dependent upon these nuclear quantum effects (NQE) of hydrogen, most notably as a proton. It is well established scientific orthodoxy that protons in water and hydrogen atoms of water molecules exhibit quantum phenomena. The effect is amplified by the hydrogen bonding and juxta-membrane location of protons in mitochondria and chloroplasts. NQE explains the otherwise inexplicable features of chemiosmosis, including the paucity of protons, the rate of proton movement and ATP genesis in otherwise subliminal proton motive forces and thus functionality of alkaliphiles. It also accounts for the efficiencies of chemiosmosis reported at greater than 100% in certain contexts, which violates the second law of thermodynamics under the paradigm of classical physics. Mitochondria may have evolved to exploit quantum biology with notable features such as dimeric ATP synthases adumbrating the first double-slip experiment with the protons. The dramatic global deceleration of mitochondrial chemiosmosis and all cellular function following proton substitution with its heavier isotopes, deuterium and tritium: "deuteruction", is testimony to the primacy of nuclear quantum effects in this Quantum Chemiosmosis. Indeed the speed of evolution itself and its inexorable route to homeothermy may be due to the power of nuclear quantum effects of the smallest nucleus, the proton. The atom that is almost nothing was selected to bring about the most important processes and complex manifestations of life.
三磷酸腺苷（ATP）是一种通用的生物货币，化学渗透作用则是印制这种货币的代谢造币厂。化学渗透作用利用膜电位和离子梯度，通常是质子梯度，来生成ATP。当前的化学渗透假说既是定论也是教条。然而，毫无保留且不加批判地接受这一模型存在障碍。有趣的是，质子足够小，能够展现波粒二象性的量子现象，而这种现象通常被认为是更小的亚细胞粒子所独有的特权。有证据表明，化学渗透作用必然严重依赖于氢的这些核量子效应（NQE），最显著的是作为质子的氢。水合质子以及水分子中的氢原子呈现量子现象，这是已确立的科学正统观念。线粒体和叶绿体中质子的氢键作用和近膜位置放大了这种效应。核量子效应解释了化学渗透作用中原本无法解释的特征，包括质子的稀缺性、质子移动速率以及在原本微弱的质子动力势下的ATP生成，进而解释了嗜碱菌的功能。它还解释了在某些情况下报告的化学渗透效率超过100%的现象，这在经典物理学范式下违反了热力学第二定律。线粒体可能已经进化到利用量子生物学，具有二聚体ATP合酶等显著特征，预示着质子的首次双缝实验。用其较重的同位素氘和氚替代质子后，线粒体化学渗透作用以及所有细胞功能出现显著的全球减速：“氘化作用”，这证明了核量子效应在这种量子化学渗透作用中的首要地位。事实上，进化本身的速度及其通向恒温的必然路径可能归因于最小原子核——质子的核量子效应的力量。这个几乎微不足道的原子被选择来引发生命中最重要的过程和复杂表现。
