The resting state of adsorbed potassium, seems similar to the anode in a chemical battery. The potassium ions act as cardinal adsorbents, compounds that regulate cell activity by electrical induction, specifically electron withdrawing cardinals (EWC). The potassium binding to carboxyl groups on proteins is in reduced form, in a lower oxidation state, like zinc plated into the anode in a galvanic cell. This charged state is maintained by the cardinal adsorbent ATP. Withdrawal of ATP will allow the discharge of the potassium anode, the electrons will flow through the structure to do work, and reach the cathode state, adsorbed sodium.

The living state of the protocell was able to separate its state from the surrounding medium in salt water, by selectively adsorbing potassium that was a minority electrolyte, over sodium that is the main electrolyte in marine water. It did this by concentrating potassium to 1600 times that in the external medium (Ishima, 1981; Matveev, 2016). The ability of the protocell to adsorb potassium and exclude sodium, the resting anode state, also gave it the ability to discharge into the activated cathode state, that instead adsorbs sodium, to switch from resting to activated state.

This anode-cathode analogy might be a bit of a metaphor, but it also points to how electric current could be generated in the body. Such as nerve impulses, and the electrically coordinated contractions of the heart. The calcium stored in the sarcoplasmic reticulum or endoplasmic reticulum in general, might be in reduced form, adsorbed to calsequestrin. With discharge of the sarcoplasmic reticulum battery, calcium from the calsequestrin electrode dissolves into the solution as Ca2+ ions (oxidation), releasing electrons that enter the external conductor, the myofibrils.

Synapses

Ishima, Y., Przybylski, A.T. & Fox, S.W. (1981). Electrical membrane phenomena in spherules from proteinoid and lecithin. BioSystems 13(4), 243–251.

Matveev, V. V. (2016). Comparison of fundamental physical properties of the model cells (protocells) and the living cells reveals the need in protophysiology. International Journal of Astrobiology, 16(1), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1473550415000476