Sunday, 12 July 2015

More powerful than Aquaman? Impossible.

Fancy seeing me here, on my own blog... Anyway, of late I have been enraptured by the Reckoners series of novels by a hero of mine, Brandon Sanderson. The series thus far tells of ordinary humans being transformed into super-humans, with an immense spectrum of powers, by a deity/celestial body known as Calamity. In the Reckoners universe such super-humans are known as Epics, and their powers corrupt them to such a degree that they have fractured society and created a nightmarish dystopia. This got me thinking, if Epics had dominion over ultra-specific biological processes, would they be stronger than the fictional  superheroes we have bombarded at our retinas every time we go to the cinema? Thor may have Mjolnir, and Bruce Banner may be able to turn into a green thug when his heart rate spikes, but those powers have nothing over the total control of AXOPLASMIC STREAMING (long context is very long). Axoplasmic streaming is the process responsible for the movement of proteins, lipids, mitochondria and other organelles to and from the cell body of a neurone. An example of when this mechanism is relevant is in the synthesis of neurotransmitters and synaptic vesicles in the cell body of motor or sensory neurones, which must then be transported to the synaptic knob (eloquent I know) for the propagation of action potentials across the synaptic cleft. Microtubules, much akin to those that construct the cytoskeleton in your average Joe body cell (all cells are amazing I merely jest), made of the globular subunit tubulin, create the pathways for movement along the axon to the synapse, and 2 vital motor proteins; dynein and kinesin, are used as haulage vehicles for everything synthesised by the Nissl's granules in neuronal cell bodies. The speed of axoplasmic streaming is variable, something I found particularly interesting with regard to my super-human powers investigation. The speed is dependant on the cargo of the motor proteins, with vesicular cargo moving far faster at up to 400mm/day, than other proteins; for example cytoskeleton proteins move as slow as 8mm/day. To clarify, the Epic with this power over Axoplasmic streaming would not manipulate his/her own process.  That would have no biological benefits as the mechanism has been optimised by millions of years of evolution. The Epic would manipulate the streaming in other people, making it a weapon of sorts. By slowing down the streaming of synaptic vesicles and the neurotransmitters within them along the axon to the synaptic knob, less neurotransmitter (acetylcholine for example) would be available for release into the synaptic cleft when an impulse reaches the pre-synaptic membrane, essentially halting the progress of the action potential, due to the reduced permeability of the post synaptic membrane to sodium and potassium ions (acetylcholine binding there increases permeability to ions). This would  create a kind of rapidly induced accommodation effect in the neurone, causing paralysis of muscles comparable to that induced by the botulinum toxin, which inhibits the binding of acetylcholine. So my hypothetical Epic power would allow the wielder to kill a person with spectacular efficacy, just by having dominion over one relatively esoteric, yet vital biological process. In fact, if the wielder could create a wave of axoplasmic manipulation, they could kill in vast volumes over a minuscule time period. Who needs a high-tech suit or the powers of a Norse God, when you can disrupt the highly complex interplay of biological molecules in the nervous system? This Biologist certainly doesn't (therein lies my bias...).

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