I would like to take a moment and mention a pressing
issue we are seeing in our modern world. And
that is tech use and tech light. The data are
impressive and concerning on isolated wavelengths
of light, especially shorter wavelengths, which
is blue light. For those that don't know, We
have chromophores, which are special proteins
that absorbs specific wavelengths of light. For
blue light, the light that is LED light and tech
light, that protein is called melanopsin. Melanopsin
is responsible for our circadian biology, physiology,
and cell functioning. hormone regulation, and
even a connection to an area huge for mood. A
consideration we should include is this protein
was not even discovered until 1998. It seems
important for us to understand how our biology
uses the different wavelengths of light. for
various aspects of our biology. This blue light
chromophore is our master controller, our master
clock. Remember circadian rhythm is a two -part
process, two independent parts, light and dark.
For a quick reference, see the 2017 Nobel Prize
in Physiology medicine. But for now, I have something
exciting. I want to introduce a product unlike
any other product available. A highlight is the
product from Daylight Computer Company created
their product based on these factors. The Daylight
Computer is completely blue light free. It has
no flicker. Short wavelength flicker. is extremely
harmful for our eyes and downstream biology.
Light flicker is constantly turning our central
nervous system on and off. Essentially it is
like going to a light switch and repeatedly turning
it on and off. The problem is blue light and
LED light does this and it is so rapid You cannot
even perceive this in real time. The daylight
computer is the lowest stimulation and foremost
for sensory sensitive users. It is no question
that the alternative product, especially when
used at night, do not address or consider this
in their product. It is so toxic to human biology.
Big tech corporations have patents on how their
short wavelength implicate the human nervous
system. And a bonus, despite daylight computer
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outdoor use. And of course, increased sunlight
is always preferred. I am happy to offer a discount
for the Daylight Computer. You can use the code
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off. For today's episode, we will explore a dense
part of human biology, a hot topic as well. We
will cover a popular protein of the podcast,
tryptophan, an aromatic amino acid, and introduce
microtubules and expand on mitosis. For tryptophan,
this is a very special protein whereby it has
one codon. Tryptophan and methionine have only
one. Remember methionine provides a donor, SAM,
S -A -M, for M -T -H -F -R, the methylene tetrahydrofolate
reductase. And folate, the vitamin B9, is heavily
used for DNA methylation in this process. Anyway,
tryptophan, the one codon is UGG. This is really
upstream in our biology and I don't really want
to go here. I don't like to go here. Mainly because
some of the data is mucky and I am afraid I won't
come back from this area. It's too easy with
the obsessions and the restricted fixated interest
that are abnormal in intensity or focus. But
the DNA is A, T, C, H. Apple tree and car in
garage. The A in T and the C in G. It's high
school biology. In RNA, the T is changed to U.
So for tryptophan, the DNA is TGG. The RNA is
UGG. For microtubules, these are train tracks
for cells. They are tiny tubes and provide a
track for movement and a frame for the cell to
develop around. Mitosis, how cells copy each
other. One, cells copy the DNA. The microtubules
provide a spindle which grabs the DNA and then
splits it. An easy example of this process happening
is skin repairing after a cut. For tryptophan,
this is an essential amino acid and a building
block of proteins. Remember, we only have 20
amino acids, and then within those 20, you can
break those down into subtypes, subcategories,
and so forth. The aromatic amino acids, are very
special. The tryptophan provides a tubulin which
is primary protein component for these microtubules.
Microtubules are dynamic cytoskeletal structures
involved in cellular processes like the mitosis
or intracellular transport and maintaining the
cell's shape. This is all going to be important
for autism. Now, admittedly, this isn't really
involved much with autism research, but I have
a problem with it. We need to look at these normal
processes, these underlying processes of building
the living organism, and find out from these
upstream processes where autism is developing.
What is going on? What is wrong? and what is
causing these problems. And for that reason,
these upstream processes are heavily important.
So the tryptophan and tubulin. Tryptophan residues
are present in the amino acid sequence for the
tubulin in an alpha and beta subunit. And these
residues are contributors for the proteins' folding,
stability, and these interactions with other
molecules. Hence, the building block. An example
of this is tryptophan's hydrophobic and the aromatic
properties will influence tubulin and its binding
to the microtubule -associated proteins, or called
MAPs. The aromatics have an indole group. So
this is a carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The
endo group is a benzene ring fused with additional
nitrogen. I would like to mention Chroma, lights
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Chroma makes serves a purpose to create devices
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at checkout for a 10 % off discount. What's special
about these aromatic amino acids as they fluoresce?
We've talked about this mainly in the Cause of
Autism episode and a few other episodes from
time to time. These proteins fluoresce. So this
means that tryptophan's natural fluorescence
means they absorb light and then emit light.
What's fascinating about this is Once these proteins
absorb or are excited by UV light, remember 200
to 400 nanometer light, and the tryptophan peaks
at 280 on the absorption, and it fluoresces,
it emits light around mid 300s, I think. But
in studies, scientists can use this property
and monitor how the tubulin assembles into the
microtubules. because of the ability to observe
the light. There will be a link that shows a
fascinating video of this, maybe two videos.
There's a part one and part two. But tryptophan
and the microtubules, this is a recent video
too, early to mid -March. So mitosis. This is
the process by which a eukaryotic cell, mitosis
is only eukaryotic cells, and this involves dividing
its nucleus, the cell nucleus, to produce two
separate cells. Each of the cells need the identical
set of chromosomes. That is key here. It's a
key part of the cell cycle in ensuring that genetic
material is accurately distributed to each of
the daughter cells, each of the two split cells.
Mitosis is crucial for the growth of the living
organism and tissue repair. Remember the cut
skin. This is a big reason on how the living
organism kind of maintains and lives efficiently.
So an overview of the mitosis. Mitosis is a five
-step process. And then there's the cytokinesis,
a division of the actual cytoplasm. So the microtubules,
as part of that mitotic spindle mentioned earlier,
have a key role in moving the chromosomes apart
and into these additional cells. So the first
phase of mitosis is prophase. What happens here
is chromatin. which are loose DNAs, condenses
into very distinct chromosomes. And they do their
magical work with chromatids and centromeres.
I'm not going to get into that. But the nuclear
envelope will start to break down. And then this
mitotic spindle, mentioned earlier, that structure
from the microtubules will begin to form. And
this is a very crucial process. in the transfer
of information. Second stage is pro -metaphase.
So what happens here is the nuclear envelope
will fully disassemble and this allows a spindle
of the microtubules to access these chromosomes.
Remember that they are transferring. They provide
tracks. The microtubules grow here. Some of them
latch onto the various biology or molecules.
And some of them, they just stabilize the spindle.
And chromosomes here will start moving as the
microtubules tug on them. Observe this in the
video provided. The third phase is metaphase.
The chromosomes will begin to align at the cell's
equator plane. This is huge here. This will start
to pull into position by the spindle and each
chromosome is attached to a microtubule from
opposite poles. The microtubule here provides
tensions and ensures chromosomes are perfectly
centered. This is a very dynamic process, very
fascinating thing. And the cells can check that
all of these molecules deeply attached here are
attached before processing before moving forward.
The fourth phase is anaphase. What happens here
is sister chromatids are pulled apart and the
microtubules will begin to shorten and this separates
into individual chromosomes. These cells, they
begin to elongate as the microtubules begin to
expand and lengthen. A huge role here for the
microtubules They shrink and they drag the chromosomes
to the opposite poles. They kind of make room
for these other molecules being attached. And
lastly, the fifth and final phase is telophase.
So the chromosomes will begin to reach these
poles, their destination, and begin to decondense
back into a chromatin. The nuclear envelopes
reform around each set of the chromosomes and
this provides two separate, two different nuclei.
Then the spindle disassembles. It's gone. It's
done. The microtubule here will break down and
make room for the two distinct nuclei. Cytokinesis
will then happen and this is when the cytoplasm
divides. This splits the cell into two daughter
cells, which has its own nucleus, as we just
discovered, and the organelles. So in mammalian
cells, these complex cells, the eukaryotic cells,
a cleavage will happen, and it forms into actin
filaments, which have very dynamic roles as an
organelle as well. Remember, the eukaryotic cells
are more complex. than the prokaryotic cells.
Some roles of the actin filaments are cell movement
and the cell shape, cell adhesion. Remember the
conversation about T3 that the process of the
the thyroid and providing T3 and T4 and T3's
roles those surprising roles with cells. And
also actin filaments are involved in signal transduction.
These are all in the The cytoplasm with things
like the mitochondria and so forth, the DNA and
the nucleus. So a little review here. The chromosomes
carry the genetic information that's being divided.
These are little messengers. They're like the
post office workers, Pony Express even. The microtubules
will form the spindle which will then help move
the chromosomes and tryptophan is a part of this
for the tubulin. and the tryptophan contributes
to the structure. So this is important. The mitosis
is important because it ensures each of the split
divided cells will inherit an identical copy
of the genome. And with autism, you know this
is implicated here. This is a region of interest
here. So the mitosis and these microtubules are
huge in prenatal development. Because mitosis
is a very critical part during the embryonic
development, especially in this formation of
the brain. Remember, neuralation. Remember those
subtypes of cells with the proencephalon, the
mesencephalon, the romencephalon, and how the
brain is developed here. The neural tube. We've
discussed the neural tube. Right? This is developing
the central nervous system. And this comes early
in pregnancies around that week 3 to 4, days
22 to 28 is what we're talking about here. Remember
the episodes on neuralation. Cells undergo rapid
mitotic division here. This is how the complex
living organism becomes so complex. Microtubules
made of these tubulin proteins. from the tryptophan.
When these things that we're talking about today
are disrupted, these microtubule functions or
these any part of the mitosis cycle, this affects
how neurons proliferate, migrate, and connect.
Sounds like autism. Sounds like everything we
cover in autism with the migration problem and
the hyper and hypo connectivity. For brain size,
we've also covered this. The research shows that
some children have larger brain sizes. It's not
uncommon that they have microcephaly. I think
UC San Diego probably does the most work on this
topic. So if these neuro progenitor cells, if
they divide too much or too quickly due to that
microtubule dysregulation, it becomes a problem
for the cortical tissues. And remember the roles
of P10, phosphatase, Tencin, in regulating this
process here. In addition, post birth, this is
huge up into the, let's say, the critical period.
The living organism, the human baby, the infant,
undergoes vast and massive development. at rapid
paces here. This is a problem here. All of these
things need to be in sync with exquisite timing.
So the hypo and hyper connections in autism is
very common. It's very well established. It's
undisputed. With the neuron proliferation and
the migration, there's a problem here during
prenatal development. Because these neurons the
ventricular zone, tying this back to that ventricular
zone when the neural tube starts to fold and
the crest becomes alive. They migrate to their
destinations. They migrate based off of the tracks
and the guides from the microtubules and these
base structures like the radial glia. We've covered
that in the neuralation and the conversations
with migration. And if the mitosis produces too
many neurons, or if migration goes abnormal,
where are the neurons going to go? How are they
going to get there, or where they're supposed
to go? Remember, they're supposed to migrate
to similar cells, just like we flock to friends,
we flock to similarities. That's the process
of these neurons ought to be doing. With hyperconnectivity,
this also explains the excessive synaptic connections.
Remember the neurorexin, the Shenk 3, and the
neuroligand. There's a big problem with the synaptic
connections with the autistic phenotype. With
that is a process called synaptic pruning. And
after the birth, the brain trims excessive connections
in a process called synaptic pruning, which also
involves the microtubules for transporting the
materials to these areas. With autism, there's
a problem with the pruning. And this leaves these
crowded areas, these hyper -connected areas,
locally. Remember the sensation processing episodes
where there's studies showing that early on in
the process of sensory, when we're processing
like a visual cue or auditory cue. Early in this
process, we're sending these sensations down
through the brain for perception to make sense
of the environment. Early in this process, the
first stages, there's a problem with the sensory
processing. And the downstream connections here,
these distal connections, will phase out. With
autism, at these initial parts of the sensory
processing, it's overloaded, it's hyper -connected,
so it's too much too fast. And then it phases
out before it reaches more like cortical capacities
or areas of the brain that can help make sense
of this. The sensory processing problem is a
huge phenomena here. It is no surprise that autistics,
one of the most common comorbid problems is sensory
sensitivities. Remember part two of the sensory
processing episode when we reviewed four papers
on sensory processing and paper three showed
90 % of their subjects had sensory processing
complications and paper four showed 95 % of the
subjects had sensory processing problems. A problem
with this is that cortical development, especially
in the somatosensory cortex. And this process
is touched in the auditory cortex. And remember
the mesencephalon with the superior and inferior
colliculi. This mesencephalon is a very important
area, I think. And its goal here is to... bias
our attention to the environment, make us aware
of the environment. With autism, we don't care
about the environment. So with the cortical development,
if these microtubules that are responsible for
the migration or division are abnormal, these
areas won't be able to go downstream, go to their
destination. In addition, A common topic is the
excitation inhibition imbalance. This is big
with the sensory processing as well because it
requires a balance, a more balanced seesaw instead
of one side always high, one side always low.
For autism, it's mostly high excitation and low
inhibition. And the roles of this tryptophan
being that aromatic amino acid and providing
the tubulence for these microtubules. This is
a region of interest and likely an untouched
region of interest for some reason. We need to
go here. Some implications with the prenatal
with the autism. We've mentioned Shenk 3 and
how this helps regulate the mitosis and the microtubule
function for that synaptic formation. and the
P10. The environment is a problem. There are
a lot of environmental toxins being identified
now for autism. My question is, is it do we not
have enough DHA and melanin and so forth, melatonin
and so forth, glutathione, or are the toxins
just that much increased? Are we that much more
exposed? probably a little bit of both. But the
main environmental toxin here that's going to
do these insults is the light environment. Because
we are not getting that proper sunlight from
that full light spectrum, I should say, to develop.
We are no different from the tree or your favorite
plant outside. If we're not getting that light,
we're not going to develop. But if you block
the Sun from the tree, you're going to think,
oh, well, that's why it's dying or that's why
it didn't develop through germination. Why are
we so complicated on this? Some other functions
of the microtubules in early embryonic stages
are during the fertilization. Why I want to mention
this is because the environment of the mother
here has vastly changed and this is occurring
immediately. These processes once sperm meets
egg and we undergo this mitosis on all these
cell proliferations this comes fast. It turns
the zygotic cell two cells and then four cells
and then it just keeps on multiplying. A key
detail here is tryptophan residues. Remember
those residues in that tubulin. This will help
stabilize this. If it's off immediately, everything
downstream here will be off. That's why I want
to go more upstream. In the womb, this happens
fast, within days of conception, before you even
know, weeks, maybe months before you even know
that this is happening in your body. it is happening
in your body. This can begin as far as or as
soon as around day six or seven that the embryo
travels down the tube towards the implantation
and there are things that you can look up like
blastocyst which is the microtubules here will
help establish the cell polarity and then the
so -called blastocyst gives rise to the inner
cell mass, which is that future embryo. And then
the outer, the outer blast, which is the placenta.
Remember Dr. Hannah Stevens taking us through
the role of the placenta from the mother and
the womb, how this is developed. And already
these microtubules, they will function to make
sure that these inner cell masses and that embryo
is properly being exported and transferred and
developed, then giving rise to gastrolation.
We didn't talk about gastrolation during the
neuralation episodes, but this is occurring between
weeks two and three, and just briefly here. Some
of these roles will include transforming the
cells into three layered structures. This is
the part with the ectoderm, the mesoderm, and
the endoderm. that we discussed. And the microtubules
here will ensure that the cells reach their designated
germ layers. And then we start to form our tissues
in these organs in the different nervous systems.
So microtubules role in that neuralation are
critical for the neural tube formation. The neural
plate folding. And these microtubules will bundle
these neuroepithelial cells that we've talked
about. And the mitosis of these neuroprogenitors,
and a huge part here for autism, working alongside
the microtubules, working alongside the radial
glia, these are important, vastly important for
the scaffolds responsible for the cell migration.
Do you understand how complex and small this
process is and how easily it could be disrupted?
If you think about not having the proper exposure
for the living organism to properly grow. Something
we discussed quite heavily in the autism and
the womb episode. Several, several episodes ago,
last summer, we talked about neurogenesis. This
happens around weeks four to over 20 weeks into
embryonic development or prenatal development.
Microtubules here are heavily involved with these
neurogenesis including the axonal growth and
also the synaptogenesis. Remember that episode
long ago? We talked about synaptogenesis as well.
This is late prenatal to postnatal even. The
microtubules here will transport materials like
the vesicles and the mitochondria. We've talked
about the mitochondria in quite detail. The eukaryotic
cells need these. There are many, many mitochondria
in one cell nucleus. Thousands, I believe maybe
even 5 ,000. And the microtubules are also responsible
for the axons and the dendrites to form these
synapses. This begins late in pregnancy and ramps
up after the birth. Remember that accelerated
growth after birth. Humans are different than
other primates whereby we are vastly underdeveloped.
Remember the Lepton -Milano -Corton pathway episode
and how the biophotons helps accelerate this
process and Lepton being like an on -off switch
here. And remember the episode with Dr. Eric
Weiss, how his embryonic stem cell is rescuing
this. This is what I think. These nutrients and
this development here that we're talking about
is abnormal in the autistic phenotype, but he
can use the umbilical cord stem cells to rescue
this. I think this is what's actually happening.
So the mother that receives or that gives this
umbilical cord for this process, that mother
during pregnancy did not have as many or any
of these insults that will implicate these processes
that we're talking about. And remember, Dr. Eric
Weiss also saying that sometimes that doesn't
work. Maybe, just maybe, the mother that donated
that umbilical cord She did have some insults
that will just not align with the autistic phenotype
receiving this transfusion. I say that to say
this because Dr. Eric Weiss talked about this.
Because of the inflammation, and remember the
episode with Dr. Richard Fry with the immune
dysfunction, the mitochondrial dysfunction, and
the inflammation, the terrible trios, he called
it. Inflammation here for the maternal immune
activation. And these cytokines. Cytokines are
very fascinating and there are very many of them.
We just keep adding a number to them. Dr. Eric
Weiss highlights this in quite detail. But something
like IL -6, which is heavily involved in autism
research, this can stimulate the neural stem
cell division in the fetus. This is a very interesting
topic and a very common topic when we're talking
about autism, pathophysiology, and so forth.
IL -6. If you are listening to the podcast, listening
to the episode, please feel free to leave a review
or rating. In podcasting, reviews, ratings, and
downloads are huge, and I very much appreciate
your feedback. You can contact me on X at RPS
47586 where we can have conversations about autism.
You can check out the hop link for links to all
of the podcasts across different platforms. you
can check out the YouTube channel for full length
videos and shorts and clips. You can email me
info .fromthespectrumatgmail .com. And thank
you for listening to From the Spectrum Podcast.