ABSTRACT
Branched chain chemical reactions, discovered by N.N. Semenov [1], have given a strong impetus to investigations of free-radical processes proceeding in living organisms. N.M. Emanuel and his followers have made the essential contribution to understanding of kinetic regularities of pathological state development. The new aspect of application of the ideas about chain chemical reactions in biology concerns formation of protein aggregates. Nonnative forms of proteins which are intermediates in folding of newly synthesized polypeptide chains to native structures or formed from native proteins under the effect of adverse factors on the cells (increased temperature, for example), contain hydrophobic parts exposed to the aqueous medium and, therefore, are more active in intermolecular interactions forming functionally inactive aggregates [3]. The application of the chain chemical reactions allows for discussion of the protein aggregation question from new positions and description of the aggregation kinetics using the ideas about apical sites of the aggregates, which in the theory of chain reaction are active particles acting as the charge transmitters.
