Biophysical Interpretation on the Biological Actions of Radiations (I) (Correspondence between the Relay-contact System and the Gene-enzyme System and Some Discussions on the Target Theory)

Abstract

From the analogy between the complex gene-enzyme system governing the metabolic current in the cell and the complex electric switching circuit system governing the electric current, the induction of mutation may be compared to the blocking or alteration of different parts of the switching system at random by the mutagenic agents or by the action of radiations. Based upon the results of analysis of such a complex system with the symbolic logic or Boolean algebra, more general types of the multi-target hit functions are introduced and some special cases which may be useful in the analysis of the dose-survival and the dose-effect curves are discussed. Under the condition where the effective action field of radiation is large in comparison with the mean separation of the unit target switches, a major part of the complex switching system in the cell may be blocked or altered simultaneously by a single hit of radiation and it may appear as if there exists only a single target in the cell. With the reduction of the effective action field of radiation the dose-survival curve may have a tendency to become a sigmoid type and may be approximated by a more complex type of hit functions corresponding to the apparent internal structure of the cell explicit tinder the condition of the experiment.