TBMG is an independent academic organisation centred in Glossop, Derbyshire, U.K. which undertakes research in the field of theoretical biology and medicine.
Hormesis
The mechanism of ‘hormesis’ - the so-called ‘paradoxical’ effect of very low doses of environmental stressors or stimuli (e.g. the anticancer effects of low-dose ionising radiation) – is elusive. Not all instances of hormesis can be explained at the single-cell level, but we believe that some can. Our emphasis has been on hormesis as a general biological phenomenon.
We have explored the possibility that effects of different stressor doses are related to the so-called ‘universal cell response’ described by Dmitrii Nasonov and his colleagues during the 1950s. Seen from this perspective, all effects of stressors on cells have general characteristics, and hormesis is an inevitable consequence of these characteristics.
Also, receptor occupancy in the presence of low numbers of ligand molecules requires stochastic modelling, and an appropriate mathematical apparatus has been devised to address this need.
Main references
Gurevich KG, Agutter PS & Wheatley DN (2003) Stochastic description of the ligand-receptor interaction of biologically active substances at extremely low doses. Cell Signal 15, 447-453. PMID: 12618219
Agutter PS (2007) Cell mechanics and stress: from molecular details to the 'universal cell reaction' and hormesis. BioEssays 29, 324-333. PMID: 17373655
Agutter PS (2008) Elucidating the mechanism(s) of hormesis at the cellular level: the ‘universal cell response’. Am J Pharmacol 3, 97-107.