The Interaction of Ferritin With Microtubules <i>in Vivo</i> Will Inhibit Microtubule Superradiance and Electronic Energy Migration Through Microtubules

It has been hypothesized that the interaction of microtubules with photons via tryptophan arrays results in consciousness, and that inhibiting that behavior with anesthetics will provide proof of that hypothesis. Recently, evidence of superradiance in microtubules in tubo in response to UV stimulation and additional evidence of damping of electronic energy migration by the anesthetics isoflurane and etomidate have been proposed to provide evidentiary support for that model of consciousness. This minireview presents evidence that ferritin physically interacts with microtubules in samples obtained from live tissue. In addition, ferritin has relevant physical properties that are better for interacting with microtubules and damping electronic energy migration in microtubules than those of isoflurane and etomidate. This physical interaction and those properties would inhibit tryptophan fluorescence by 1) absorbing biophotons, as well as 2) additional mechanisms that result in electrical and magnetic interaction with microtubules and excited electrons in the microtubules. Therefore, the anesthetics isoflurane and etomidate would likely have no additional effect on microtubules in living cells than what is already present from ferritin, precluding the use of those test results as evidence for a microtubule theory of consciousness.