Murburn concept: a paradigm shift in cellular metabolism and physiology

• Main Author: Manoj Kelath Murali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 2020-01-01
• Series: Biomolecular Concepts
• Subjects: xenobiotic/drug metabolism; cellular/aerobic respiration; pharmacokinetics; oxidative phosphorylation; murburn; reactive oxygen species (ros); bioenergetics; cytochrome; reductase; thermodynamics; kinetics; mechanism; scientific philosophy; research practice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/bmc-2020-0002

Two decades of evidence-based exploratory pursuits in heme-flavin enzymology led to the formulation of a new biological electron/moiety transfer paradigm, called murburn concept. Murburn is a novel literary abstraction from “mured burning” or “mild unrestricted burning”. This concept was invoked to explain the longstanding conundrum of maverick physiological dose responses and also applied to remodel the prevailing understanding of drug metabolism and cellular respiration. A conglomeration of simple ideas grounded in the known principles of thermodynamics and reaction chemistry, murburn concept invokes catalytic/functional roles for diffusible reactive species or radicals. Hitherto, diffusible reactive species were primarily seen as toxic agents of chaos, non-conducible to the maintenance of life-order. Since the murburn paradigm offers a distinctly different perspective for several biological phenomena, researchers holding conventional views of cellular metabolism pose a direct conflict of interests to the advancement of murburn concept. Murburn schemes are poised to integrate numerous metabolic motifs with holistic physiological outcomes; redefining pursuits in biology and medicine. To advance this agenda, I present a brief account of murburn concept and point out how redundant ideas are still advocated in some prestigious journals.