Synaptosomal acetylcholinesterase activity variation pattern in the presence of electromagnetic fields

•ELF-EMF area from 1.2 mT to 1.7 mT and 50 Hz to 90 Hz decreased AChE activity.•ELF-EMF area from 1.2 mT to 1.7 mT and 50 Hz to 90 Hz could be useful in clinical methods.•ELF-EMF area from 0.8 mT to 1.2 mT and 150 Hz to 230 Hz increased AChE activity.•ELF-EMF area from 50 Hz to 90 Hz and 0.3 mT to 0.6 mT increased AChE activity.•We found two area of ELF-EMF that could be dangerous for human cognitive abilities.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is the enzyme that controls the acetylcholine (ACh) concentrations in cholinergic synaptic clefts by hydrolyzing ACh to choline and acetate. Cholinergic synapses are involved in important functions such as learning, memory and cognition. In this study, we investigated the effects of a wide range of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) on synaptic ACh concentrations through AChE enzyme activity assay. Synaptosome suspensions were prepared as a neural terminus from cerebral cortex of sheep brain. Prepared synaptosomes were exposed to ELF-EMFs with frequency ranging from 50 Hz to 230 Hz for duration between 15 and 120 min and flux intensity between 0.1 mT and 1.7 mT. Consequently, AChE activity was measured by Ellman method. Raw data were analyzed by neural network based software, Inform 4.02, to predict AChE activity pattern through nine 3D curves. These curves showed that AChE activity decreases when exposed to ELF-EMFs of 1.2 mT to 1.7 mT intensity and 50 Hz to 90 Hz frequency. Thus, it is proposed that exposure to fields of in this range of frequency–intensity would be effective in clinical treatments of cholinergic disorders to increase synaptic ACh concentration. However, more in vivo experiments are needed to develop this suggested treatment.