Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2010, 7 958 2011 until 2015 solar regulatory influences and concomitant geomagnetic field fluctuations may predispose to genetic and immunological alterations favorable to influenza epidemic spread. Dynamics of our knowledge in the field reviewed in this paper confirms and supplements ideas of Chizhevsky [1] about the electromagnetic nature of communications between spatially distant components of the single whole (integrated) system comprising our Biosphere and the Sun. Based on this foregoing analysis of the pertinent scientific knowledge and our concept, it is possible to formulate the following principles in a new scientific area of research as “Physical Epidemiology”: 1. Perturbations of cosmic plasma flow (such called star or solar “wind”) caused by Solar activity alterations induce periodic changes in the geomagnetic field that is among immediate regulatory signals for Solar-correlated cycles in Biosphere, including cyclic modulation in gene expression patterns of living beings. This solar activity-dependent regulation of gene expression can clearly lead to immunological, epidemiological and other consequences. 2. Among the universal biological “antennae” of the magnetic regulatory signals, it is important to include proteins of the Cryptochrome family and Ca2+ signaling pathways. Cryptochromes can function as "epigenetic sensors" of the geomagnetic field fluctuations, the magnetic field-sensitive part of the epigenetic regulatory mechanism. 3. The radical pair mechanism of magnetoreception (effects related to spin chemistry) can account for high magnetic responsiveness of Cryptochromes, which incorporates the radical pairs in their functionally active sites. 4. CRY are transcriptional repressors of the major circadian complex CLOCK/BMAL1, therefore magnetic fields via modulation of CRY function can influence circadian gene expression, modify activity of NF-κB- and glucocorticoids-dependent signaling pathways. 5. The pattern of stress-induced gene expression and organismal response to stress will vary depending on the functional activity of Cryptochromes, which in turn may be regulated by magnetic fields and, correspondingly—by solar activity cycles. 6. We hypothesize that solar cycles are able to both regulate, entrain processes of biological microevolution and to tune biological rhythms (bio-clocks) in living beings implementing mechanisms stated above. Acknowledgements References and Notes The authors are thankful to Denys Wheatley and Bert Johansson for their gratuitous assistance with the manuscript editing and to Leonid S. Godlevsky for his valuable recommendations, which we used during preparation of this manuscript. 1. 2. 3. Chizhevsky, A.L. The Terrestrial Echo of Solar Storms; Mysl: Moscow, Russia, 1976; p. 366. Lev Bar-Or, R.; Maya, R.; Segel, L.A.; Alon, U.; Levine, A.J.; Oren, M. Generation of oscillations by the p53-Mdm2 feedback loop: a theoretical and experimental study. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2000, 97, 11250-11255. Hoffmann, A.; Levchenko, A.; Scott, M.L.; Baltimore, D. The IkappaB-NF-kappaB signaling module: temporal control and selective gene activation. Science 2002, 298, 1241-1245.